Chapter 23

Aphrodite knew exactly where she would find him. Where he always went when he wanted to just brood away- on his throne. That is where she left him when she went to Xena to see if she could somehow get him out of that funk that he was in. The Warrior Babe always seemed to put him in a good mood but now that she knew the details of why he was in the mood that he was in, she started to think that maybe it was better if Xena was not there at all. She wasn't exactly sure what Ares would do if he did see her. So, making an appearance in his throne room, she found him precisely how she had left him. This time he didn't even bother to look at her as he seemed to just stare off into nothing.

"Ares?" the Love Goddess called out as she cautiously approached him, not wanting him to lash out at her- she could feel the negative energy just pouring off of him. He didn't respond to her though, instead he just continued to sit there not moving. This was worse than when she left, at least then he was speaking to her. She came closer to him, taking cautious, small steps, and moved into his line of sight so he could see that she was there.

"Bro', I have some good news for you! I'm sure that will get you out of this mood that you are in."

She gulped big as she moved to tell him what it was. "It's about Xena!" she said cheerily and she noticed that at mentioning his new addiction's name, she got a reaction out of the War God, as he now shifted his eyes to her.

"What about her?" he asked, his voice flat, trying to act like he wasn't really interested on this new subject matter. Yet, he was very curious of what the Love Goddess had to say since he wanted to know what she had been doing given that he hadn't checked on her in the last two days. But seeing the look on his sister's face the War God realized he should have kept his mouth shut and just continued to ignore her. He groaned inwardly because he now knew that she was going to hound him about her and he turned his head away from the Love Goddess, attempting to show her that her new information was not at all significant to him.

Aphrodite smiled big at him, maybe it wouldn't have been such a bad idea to bring the Warrior Babe after all. He didn't seem to be getting any angrier at this topic and she could tell that she had definitely peeked his interest by mentioning Xena. Even though he was trying to make it seem like he couldn't care less about what she had to say. Who did he think he was fooling?

"Well, since you are so enthralled about all things related to Xena these days.." she paused a moment when he cast her a nasty sideways glance for her comment and then turned away from her again, but it did not stop her at all from continuing, "...it is about her and that man she is with."

"Stop right there!" he yelled out and turned to look at her, "I don't want to know anything about that. Who she screws has nothing to do with making her my warrior. I couldn't care less about her sexual escapades." Ares was now seething as that was the last thing he expected her to bring up.

Nooo, he was not going to have this conversation with her.

"As you can see I'm busy so leave, now!" he growled out to her and made a portal appear with a battle raging in it to show her just how busy he was. He thought he had gotten rid of his sister with her last visit but yet here she was again. This time jabbing at the annoying topic of Xena and the Gods damn bastard mortal who was screwing her the other night. He certainly didn't want to discuss that as he had seen enough already and hearing all about the dirty details was the last thing he needed..

"Oh but I think you would want to hear this." she continued happily, certain that she had the news that would perk him up in an instant. But she didn't take into account that she was now only fueling his rage.

"I said I don't want to hear about it Dite!" he told her warningly as he formed a fireball in his hand. "So please spare me all the juicy details."

Not thinking that he would really toss it at her she tried to get him to hear her out.

"That man is not who you think he is."

As soon as the words left her mouth she saw the fireball coming in her direction and she quickly scrambled out of the way and ducked behind a nearby couch. She couldn't believe that he had actually thrown it at her. Carefully she poked her head out from behind the couch and looked at him.

"Hey, what did you do that for?"

"Next time I won't miss." he threatened as he got up from his throne and started to head in her direction.

"Ares I need you to listen to me for a second. That man...aahh" She moved from behind the couch as he threw another fireball in her direction and she moved to stand behind a pillar as the couch exploded.

"Don't say I didn't warn you." Ares seethed out.

"He's her brother Ares!" Aphrodite shouted out from behind the pillar. When no fireball had flown in her direction she hesitantly poked her head out from around the pillar to look in the War Gods direction. She could see he was thinking everything over in his head.

Ares stood there in the middle of his throne room for a couple of seconds, taking in the words she had just said to him. The man was her brother…. her brother? That certainly explained a thing or two - no wonder she reacted the way she did when she saw him. And offering him to stay with her so quickly was because she wanted him to have a place to rest without having to worry about finding an inn that late in the day- definitely not because she wanted him to share her bed. But how did his sister know this information? He couldn't understand why the subject was still bothering him so much. He shouldn't have been thinking about it as much as he had been doing. But how was he supposed to react when he was about to make love to her and she cut him off cold turkey to go to the arms of another?

Ares mentally slapped himself and stiffened at his own thoughts as he realized that he had just described what they were about to do as making love and not a quick fuck as he used to describe so many other liaisons he had in the past. Where did that thought come from? He quickly started to shake those ideas out of his head. He didn't want to analyze where that had come from.

"Her brother?" he repeated out loud and cast a questioning look towards Aphrodite and saw her nod in response. "And how do you know this?"

"Me and the warrior babe are like two peas in a pod Bro. She told me her brother Lyceus came and surprised her with a visit the other day. He's such a cutie!" she giggled out. "He won't be in town very long though."

The Love Goddess got an idea then and an impish grin began to form on her face. "I'm sure the Warrior Babe could use some nice strong muscular arms to hold her tight and comfort her once he is gone." she gave Ares a wink.

"And what exactly do you mean by that?" he gave her a perplexed look.

"She is sure to be sad over his leaving as it has been so long since the last time she has seen him." she gave the War God a huge grin, "Surely she will need someone there to help wipe away the tears."

She was obviously dropping him subtle hints and he just didn't seem to be taking the bait as he just stood there with the most dumbfounded look on his face.. His stubbornness was going to be her biggest obstacle, she silently said to herself .

"I didn't realize the two of you were such good friends." he cast her a sideways glance. "When did this happen?"

"Oh you know me, always the social butterfly. Meeting new people is my all time favorite thing. Especially when that person has managed to capture the attention of the big bad God of War."

Ares shot her a look. "And what is that suppose to mean exactly? She's a warrior and I could use one with her skill set. The glory that she will bring me..." Ares shivered from the thought and let out a deep groan, ".. it's invigorating."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's a warrior and that's all she'll ever be. Right, and I'm a Hestian virgin."

She still couldn't believe how in denial he was about what he was feeling for Xena. The Love Goddess could see it as clear as day and even more after this little fiasco.

"Just what are you trying to get at here?" Ares didn't like what she was hinting at.

"Come on, isn't it quite obvious what you are feeling?"

At his silence she could see she had to drag it out of him. "It's love bro!" she exclaimed while throwing her hands up a little and causing a shower of pink hearts and glitter to fall down in front of her.

Ares stared at her with his mouth agape at her little charade and then let out a deep hearty laugh when he heard her answer. "Oh sis that is a good one." he wiped the tears away from his eyes from his laughing. "Lust maybe, but love... I don't think so."

"And why not? Even the God of War is capable of love." She couldn't believe at how stubborn he was. If he continued to act this way he could end up blowing whatever chance he might have with Xena.

"Well why don't you go and give out that love crap someplace else? You're barking up the wrong tree here."

"Come on Ares, it's totally obvious that you were upset because you thought that the Warrior Babe had slept with someone else right when you were about to get to do the deed yourself."

"That's not why I was upset." he said defensively. "My generals can't stick to a Gods damned plan."

"And now look at you." the Love Goddess gestured at him completely ignoring the excuse he was giving. "Now that you know that she didn't, you have calmed down."

"There you go again with your delusional thoughts. You should really seek some help with that before it becomes permanent."

"And that army you wiped off the face of the earth the other day, was that because your plans failed or were you letting off some jealous rage at seeing the two of them together?"

Ares opened up his mouth to respond to her unrelenting opinion of what she thought she knew but snapped his mouth shut and just waved her off not wanting to continue this conversation anymore and her ridiculous idea that she was trying to force down his throat. She had clearly been inhaling all those incense of hers for way too long and now she was going crazy. She certainly had no idea what she was talking about. The thought was absurd to him and to think that she called herself the Goddess of Love! Well she needed to rethink that title then, more like the Goddess of Stupid Ideas.

The Love Goddess could see that she had her work cut out for her if she was ever going to get him to realize it. Today was not going to be that day. She was satisfied in knowing that now he was out of his bad mood and she could move on to getting the Warrior Babe and the stud muffin together. It shouldn't be that hard but somehow she figured that their stubbornness might just make it so. She left his throne room to figure out how she was going to do just that.

Ares heard her leave and was relieved that she left without putting up much of a fight on her new notion. But knowing her like he did, he knew she was not going to drop it so easily. He was certain that he would be hearing from her very soon on this subject….Sooner than he would have liked her too. His thoughts slowly started to turn back to Xena and what Aphrodite had said earlier. The thought that she might be sad about something started to irritate him. He huffed out a breath as he attempted to stop himself from thinking along those lines. What did it matter to him if she was sad about something? He didn't care about how she felt, all he cared about was being able to turn that power she possessed into something he could use to his advantage. Whether she was happy or not was of no concern to him.

He moved back to his throne and sat down on it as he made a portal appear to check in on a few of his generals. Everything seemed to be going as planned for once. Maybe cause now he had threatened them all with certain death the night before if they screwed anything up. He couldn't help it though as his thoughts drifted back to Xena. He tried to push her out of his mind but every time he did that he would just see an image of her crying. He shook his head to chase that thought away, that was something he did not deal with. Crying women was not his area of expertise and he stayed as far away from it as possible. It made him uncomfortable and whenever Aphrodite did it around him he just felt awkward as he wouldn't know what to do with her once she started. He always just ended up standing their awkwardly as she blubbered all over his chest and he would occasionally pat her on the back.

But Gods damn it, that thought kept pushing its way to the front of his mind no matter how hard he tried to suppress it. Nooo, he wasn't going to do it, he wasn't going to check. He could do it, all he had to do was keep his focus on the battle in front of him and the thought will just slip away and he wouldn't have to think about it anymore. The last time he gave into his urge to check on her he regretted it and so he wasn't going to do it again. Ares stared intently at the battle that was raging in front of him, focusing on the bloodshed, the battle lust, and just as one warrior was about to drive his sword into the chest of another an image of her flashed in his head and she was crying. He let out an annoyed breath and giving in to it he changed the image in the portal to show him Xena.

She was in her bedchamber by herself curled up on her side, lying on the bed. The only light in the room was coming from the hearth and he figured that she was asleep as she was just lying there. He looked at the image of her for a few more moments, letting himself soak up the view of her since he hadn't seen her in awhile, to finally put his mind at ease and he was just about to close the portal when he heard it. At first he thought he had imagined it but then he heard it again. He let out a low groan and closed his eyes as he tried to block out the sound of her sniffles. He could do this, he could walk away, just like he had walked away from countless other things that were far more important than this. What was this anyway? Just one mortal woman crying, nothing new there. Mortal women cried all the time and had nothing to do with him. Crying, it was just another weakness.

He talked himself into it and he felt confident that he had it in him to just close this portal and go on with something else that needed his attention. Surely there was this great battle going on somewhere that needed his presence. Yeah, that's just what he needed, a nice bloody battle, there wasn't anything more important than that. His eyes filled with a spark of what that battle could bring him and he began to lift his hand to close off this blasted non important image. But the moment he looked up into it to do just that Xena sniffled again and brought her hand up to quickly wipe away a tear that managed to escape. He furrowed his brow at the sight and he clenched his fists. He lowered his gaze and let out a heavy breath as he began to shake his head. He kept trying to push it out of his mind as he tried to reinforce that he could do this. What did it matter to him anyway? It didn't matter to him, he told himself. Just one motion of his hand and it will all be over and he wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. Yes, one motion, that was all he had to do and it will all be over. Out of sight, out of mind...

The War God lifted his head back up and with one wave of his hand he made the portal disappear. There, now he no longer had to stare at that annoying image. He let out a pleased sigh, he was proud with himself that he was able to do it, it wasn't that hard. He had made a bigger deal out of it then what it really was. Now he could focus on things that really needed his attention and that were more important, not the tears of a woman who was missing her brother. All those emotional attachments, were just another weakness, end of the story. The War God started to wonder what he should do at that moment, should he go pay one of his generals a visit and see how they were fairing with their new orders. Seemed like a good idea as any, if he left them alone long enough they would only manage to screw something up. Ares sat there on his throne for a moment, tapping his fingers against the arm rest, just thinking, then shards of blue light began to form around him as he left his throne room.