Chapter 35

The music, laughter and bustle could be heard clearly throughout the main hall of the temple. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves as the festivities for the night went on. Everyone but the lone Warrior Princess, who was seated solely on a couch watching the celebration go on. Another wasted day had come and gone and now she had to sit there and watch as most of the citizens of Athens got plastered with ale or tried to screw each other as they rejoiced on this festival dedicated to Athena. She scoffed to herself... a festival. Just another lame excuse for the Goddess to gain new followers, she couldn't believe she had never realized how vain Athena was until these last few months. These pointless parties she would throw, they were all the same. The wine flowed heavily and it usually ended in one if not several orgies.

She should have just stayed in her room, at least then she wouldn't have had to sit through the horrible come one's of several of the male guests, each one trying to worm his way under her skirt and all of them thinking that just because she didn't right out tell them to get lost that they were allowed to touch her, placing their hands on her thigh, trying to inch their way higher.

Xena had quickly put a stop to any and all of them thinking that they were going to get lucky that night and have her as a little fuck buddy. Each one now had the unfortunate fate of mending a broken nose and a bruised wrist though. Others had seen the little display several times throughout the night and now, most of them simply avoided her. Good, she wanted to be left alone anyway.

A few brave souls had dared to try and approach her again and Xena immediately shot them a stony glare and all beliefs of what they might have thought was going to happen quickly vanished. They turned around and headed in the opposite direction, not wanting to meet the same fate as some of the others who had so daringly tried to get too close to her. She sighed deeply, bored with the whole situation and not really wanting to be there anymore but then a hint of something black caught her eye and she looked in that direction. She scanned the crowd, searching for what she had just seen and hoping that maybe it was who she thought it was. Her heart started to beat a little faster and a small smile formed on her face once she caught a glimpse of that black leather again.

Just when it seemed that finally things were starting to head in her direction for once, her smile fell, a wave of disappointment now encroaching on her heart once that pocket in the crowd opened up and revealed nothing more than a drunken fool stumbling over his own feet as he tried to remain standing. What did she expect anyway, it had been months, five to be exact, and as each day came and went in pretty much the same pointless way, and the thought of the War God returning was slowly becoming nothing but a vain hope. She harshly chastised herself for having allowed her mind wander for even the slightest notion that it could have been him. When was she going to learn to stop expecting? She looked down at the leather string around her neck and then pulled out the pendant that she had tucked under her dress between her breasts and held it in her hand. Why did she even still wear this blasted thing? All it ever did was serve as a constant reminder to her of all the empty promises and of a pair of auburn eyes that she wanted nothing more than to forget. She tried to stop thinking about all that had happened between her and the War God but every time she closed her eyes, there he was, endlessly reminding her of what they once shared. The things he had said, how he had made her feel each time he was close to her, the way he touched her, the feel of his lips against her own... She quickly reprimanded herself for that last thought. Where had that come from, it didn't matter anymore he wasn't coming back.

She clenched her fist around the pendant and then opened it and looked down at it. The pendant she just couldn't seem to part with and she had very rarely if ever taken it off. She didn't know why she just didn't throw it away the first chance she got and she convinced herself that it served only as a reminder to what she should have stuck to and that was the only reason why she still had it. The constant reminder of an experience that had once again taught her she couldn't really trust anyone and she shouldn't have let him get an inch passed her defenses. She didn't need anybody else, all she needed was herself and she had been doing perfectly fine before he had decided to show his face in the first place. At that last thought, she felt a twinge of emptiness inside herself and a slight frown formed on her face from the feeling. She closed her hand softly around the pendant this time and held it tightly to her chest.

"Hey there, Warrior Babe! Why are you sitting over here all by your little lonesome looking all gloomy?" the bubbly voice of the Love Goddess filled the vacant spot next to her as the Goddess appeared beside her on the couch.

Xena quickly tucked the pendant back between her breasts to conceal it from the Goddess. The last thing she wanted was to be caught with it. In her haste to hide it, she didn't know that Aphrodite had already been watching her for awhile that night. The Love Goddess had shown up at the party several moments ago and had immediately gotten hit with this awful feeling of despair. Curious to who could have been feeling that way at a celebration that seemed to her to be in full swing, and not liking the distress, she simply followed the link to the force of this dreadful anguish and came to find her brother's fixation sitting all alone in a corner. She saw Xena pull something from between her breasts and her heart instantly broke when she noticed that it was Ares' pendant that she was holding. She thought the whole thing was just so tragic, the way Zeus was forcing him to stay away and keeping them apart when it was clear that they longed for each other and she couldn't leave her favorite brother's flame unaccompanied in her time of need.

"Hello, Aphrodite." she murmured, trying not to sound too bothered that the Goddess was now there.

"Do you want to talk about it?" the Love Goddess reached over and softly ran her fingers against her shoulder.

"Talk about what?" she said more defensively then she should have and she shrugged off her touch.

"For one, why a hot babe like yourself is sitting in this dark corner instead of being out there mingling with a sexy man who is willing to ravish you? Especially dressed like….this." she said, letting her eyes roam over her for a moment and the sexy red dress that she was wearing. That was a hot little number she had as if fit her tightly. The Goddess knew that if Ares had been there he wouldn't have let her out of his sight for a second in that outfit and he more than likely would have whisked her away to his own personal quarters so he could plunder his own private field for the rest of the night.

Xena shot her a disgusted look for her having even suggested that. "I've been groped enough tonight... I don't need to be ravished by any of them."

"Maybe the right one just hasn't come along yet. The night is still young. You know, someone who's tall, dark, handsome and has just the right amount of danger to him." she looked over at Xena as she subtly described Ares to her, "With just the right amount of bulging muscles, some leather, do you know what I mean?"

Xena was fairly certain that the Goddess was talking about someone specific…. Someone that she did not want to be talking about at that moment.

"No, I don't know. And if you don't mind I want to be left alone."

"No one wants to be alone. That's like totally depressing! " the Goddess contradicted, seeing that her friend was way sadder than she had originally thought, "Come on, tell me... who out there has the lucky fortune of catching your eye?" since she couldn't give her what she really wanted then the next best thing would just have to do.

"I'm warning you Aphrodite, don't even think about it. I don't want or need your help." Xena told her sternly, pinning her with an icy glare to reinforce to the Goddess that she was serious.

But the Love Goddess was not going to take no for an answer. All the Warrior Babe needed was a little release from the sorrow that was forming in her heart and she just needed to pick out the right candidate for the job.

"How about that one over there..?" she asked, pointing over to a powerfully built looking warrior who was in the middle of trying to work his magic on a fair young maiden "...he just screams tall, dark and dangerous."

Xena just rolled her eyes at the way she was continuing to try and push the matter. Couldn't she just take the hint and leave her alone? Of course not, why would the Goddess take into consideration something that she actually wanted? She was way too busy with trying to force this guy down her throat to even care about how she was feeling. She didn't want anyone else, the one who had sparked... She stopped herself right away from thinking around that line of thought. She was not going to do this and without another word to the Love Goddess, who was just going on and on about how great this guy would be for her, she got up and left her there and headed down a small corridor away from the raging party.

The Goddess watched her go and she knew that she could not leave her like that. What kind of Love Goddess would she be if she didn't even try to at least help mend her broken heart? She knew she was missing Ares, she could feel it radiating off of her. The sadness that was slowly growing inside of her was just not going to do for the Goddess and she refocused her attention back on the man she had picked out for the Warrior Babe. He would have to do until the War God could return to claim his prize and he was just the distraction that she needed. She materialized next to the man and stayed hidden in the ether as she surveyed him closely, she just couldn't hit anyone with a simple love spell and send him off after Ares' girl. She needed to make sure that the Warrior Babe was going to like him first and then she would accept him more willingly. Liking what she was seeing, she knew that Xena was just going to love him and he would help her forget for a moment all about those charming eyes of the God of War. With a wave of her hand she sent a sparkling pink dust into her match and whispered softly in his ear for a moment. His focus had immediately changed from the maiden in front of him and he focused his attention on the hall that Xena had just walked down and he headed in that direction. Satisfied with her handy work, Aphrodite reappeared back on the couch that she was just sitting on and waited to see how the night was going to turn out for her new favorite girl.