Artemis Dun Wanna Share. Nuff Said ;P
"What do you think you are doing?" The question came from a cold voice. One that had an eerie beauty to it. Much like howling wind during a snow storm. If you were into that kind of thing.
Itisha looked up from the flowers she fussed with outside, making sure they had covers on them for when some of the early spring frost hit. There was such a tired look given to the woman, "Gardening. Do they not have that on Olympus or do they just poof it all into existence? Maybe they make everything out of clouds like the Disney film."
A snarl and she stalked forward, "You know what I mean, lizard. What are you doing with Acheron? You have no business being anywhere near what is mine."
Nothing like a Greek God's temper and jealousy to work through the night. A dismissive look and Itisha turned back to her flowers, "Dragon, first of all. Second of all, he isn't yours so what I do with him is frankly none of your business."
A god-bolt shot out into the flowers. Making Itisha sit back on her heels and sigh at the smoldering black blotch on her flowerbed. Petals fluttering everywhere and her nostrils filled with the smell of singed flowers and mulch. Charming, "Are you quite done ruining my flowers?"
"Keep your hands off of him." She hisses, "Or it won't be the flowers I fry."
A sigh and Itisha finally drew herself up to standing and looked up at the goddess. Arms crossing in front of her chest, "You know you are just fooling yourself, right? You had to invent an entire army of people to keep him honor bound to you. You take out everything on him. You love the idea of him, but not him. That isn't love, Artemis. That is infatuation and a serious abuse."
"And what would you know? Did Aphrodite's gift give you some magical ability to tell all about love?" Artemis sneered, trembling from anger.
"Yes, more or less. Gave me Empathy. Both directions, which is an utter pain really. Part of you might have loved him once, but you poisoned it with shame."
"Shut up! I don't need to hear this from you! Would you not do the same? Wouldn't you try to keep someone close to you because you made a huge mistake? If he would just forgive me-"
"Artemis!" Itisha snapped suddenly, her voice tight and angry as she took a step forward. Her tone causing the goddess to glare at her, "You are twisting him up and hurting him. You make it difficu-"
"I said shut up!" Artemis sent a godbolt out of her hand and into the dragon's chest, knocking Itisha back into the flowers. The goddess froze then as she stared at the body as it barely breathed. Shit. She hesitated and stepped forward, kneeling down to touch on her neck. A fluttering heartbeat under her fingers, struggling to survive what just happened.
A look at where she had blasted her. Chest scorched black. The thick jumper burned and smoking and white skin looked like badly burnt meat. Crap, what did she do? Calling Archeron was probably the right answer, but he would probably kill her for this then, "Why couldn't you just shut up." She ground out.
"Call… Polly." Itisha whispered. A panic fluttering in worry over her children. Who was going to keep an eye on them? Likely the giant massive cats for one. Still, she needed to get up. Which she tried, but her arms were having none of it. The world swam and her vision was spotted in black. Breathing was suddenly near impossible as she could feel the panic of the one beside her. Hard to actually hate the goddess who was still very much like a destructive teenager who had no idea what to do with her emotions.
"Polly? Who is-" Artemis stared suddenly. Eyes wide as she stared down at the other, "You know Apollymi." There was a stare and she swore. The Destroyer hated her. "Why would she answ-"
'What have you done to my star.'
Fuck.
Artemis looked around, but no one was there. She could hear the voice and she went cold, "I… help her. I didn't mean to…" The goddess didn't know how to fix this. Certainly wasn't making her a Dark-Hunter. That was destined to end badly for her.
'She could take your place, you know. She refuses to. If she killed you, she could take your place as Goddess of the Hunt and of the Moon.' The disembodied voice said angrily, 'In all honesty, I think she should have. Yet she refused to do so. You are undeserving of that kindness, wretch.'
Instead, Itisha took a sharp breath and her back arched. The woman rolled over and started coughing hard. Fingers curling in the dirt as she forced herself to breathe through pained breaths. Body shook and Itisha sat up slowly. A glimmer of silver swirled in crystal blues before becoming nearly unnoticeable.
'Are you alright, little star?'
Artemis sat there and stared as the other sat up and rubbed at her scorched chest. A slow healing of it as the wound started to repair itself. What just happened?
"Yea, I'm good, Polly. Just a bit sore. Thank you for not scorching the heifer goddess. I don't feel like Apollo getting crankier than his sunshiney ass is." She ignored the snarl from the one beside her as she waved off the voice, "I'll come visit when I have one of the kids keeping an eye on the smaller demons while the rest are at school. Love ya, Pols."
'I love you too, Iti. I look forward to seeing you, little Moon."
The feeling of being watched vanished and she looked at Artemis and frowned, "You seriously need to get a reign on your emotions, Moon Butt."
"What did she do?" Artemis said finally. Reaching out as the wound healed enough to not be deadly, but it was still very scorched. A god bold tended to be hard to heal over right away. The Destroyer knew the dragon.
"Fuck if I know." She answered and shrugged, regretting it instantly, "I really need to finish covering these flowers. I think my scaley ass just smushed a bunch of them." A sigh as she shifts and moves off of them and to the edge. Her hand reaching out to tug Artemis back as well off her flowers.
Artemis couldn't help but actually be tugged. A wide eyed stare still. Without thinking, she waved her hand and the flowers were fixed. Grass and dirt still scorched, but they were all repaired and the rest all had covers on them, "Why aren't you trying to kill me?"
A blink and Itisha looks at Artemis. Apparently she was expecting her to rail on her. Tempting, but Itisha sighed and stood up. Grimacing at having to move at all, "Thanks for finishing my work. I'd probably keel over trying to do that as sore as I am. As for why I am not trying to kill you, it would just be a bad thing and you did something out of anger. Everyone screws up. Sometimes they are just huge screw ups."
It was… so very hard to wrap her head around, "You just thanked me. I near killed you and you just thanked me and you aren't trying to kill me. You heard Apollymi. You could just end me and the biggest consequence would be you being tied to my job instead of me. Well, and my brother angry."
A little shrug and Itisha motions for Artemis to follow her, "I'm too tired to try and murder anyone today, honestly. Frankly too tired to be angry lately too. I already take care of a bunch of children. I don't need quite that much more on my plate. Come inside, I can give you some food. It isn't Olympus grade food, but I make a damn good plate of pasta."
"You have to be tricking me. No one is that nice."
"No, I am not tricking you. Does it look like I have the energy for that right now? Or the patience? I don't feel like making trouble over a vengeance one-up game. Now are you coming inside or not?"
"I don't understand yo-"
"Artemis. When I usually hear your name, it isn't said with a nice happy tone. No one really cares for you at the moment. Probably because they have about as much trouble dealing with their own grumpy selves as they do you. All of you need some really good therapy. Unfortunately, I am generally giving that to my hoard of children and I think Miss Grace would have an aneurysm. You need someone who isn't going to curse you out alongside of your name. Well… not all the time. You piss me off a lot, but I think you were thrown out there to fend for yourself with gods who know about as much as about emotional stability as my three year old."
Artemis stared at her as she finally took a few steps to follow her. She didn't know why she was doing it. In all honesty, she should have been vanishing by now and hiding away in her home, "I feel like I should be insulted, but I am too confused to really be that."
"Eh, I am really good at that. I either piss people off or confuse them." A shrug as she climbs up her steps. Hand clutching the banister as she hisses softly. Pain. Sucked. So. Much.
Before she could stop herself, Artemis moved and helped support her weight at her other side, "And you want to cook? You should be resting."
"Eh, I'll be fine. I just planned on reheating the left-overs from dinner today. I pride myself on lazy skills that keep everyone fed and alive. Gives me time to sit down." Itisha assured her, not shrugging off her help as they got up to the door and inside.
"How many children do you have?" Artemis asked as she walked in through the back door to the large kitchen. A blink as she could see the refrigerator covered in drawings, notes, and schedules.
That caused Itisha to pause and she seemed to go still and quiet. For a long time she hesitated in answering before she moved, "Right now, five. It was far more but…" She trailed off and shook her head as she motioned to the breakfast table and bar stools, "Take a seat. What would you like to drink?"
Artemis couldn't help but stare as she sat down. That was a fresh pain. Then she realized that emotions really were bleeding off the other and… there was pain. Love induced pain and a simmering exhausted anger and defeat. Her arms were drawn into her lap as she sat down and looked around the room. She felt uncomfortable and awkward.
"Do you have wine?" She asks quietly.
"Yep, I'll give you one of the blushes. It works well with the alfredo." Itisha moves through the kitchen, pulling out a plate and utensils before pulling out a plastic container and putting some on the plate. She stuck it in the microwave and put the rest of the container back in the fridge. Moving hurt, but she still managed to get out the bottle and a wine glass. A couple of glasses pulled out and she poured the pink wine into both before sticking the cork back in. At least she didn't have to use a proper bottle opener. Setting one glass in front of Artemis, she carefully eased herself into a stool and sipped at her drink.
"Still confused as hell, Artemis?"
She started to shake her head and froze before nodding, "Yes." Her voice tiny and small, "I don't understand why you are doing this for me."
"Has anyone else done this for you? Without them actually serving you."
Silence and then Artemis answered, "No. They haven't."
"Well, then I suppose this is a good start, isn't it? Can't expect someone to learn compassion if they've never received it from anyone else or witnessed it."
"That isn't true. I witness Acheron give love and compassion to others all of the time." Her voice bitter as she sipped her drink. Green eyes stared at the marble counter.
"Yes, but you are blinded by your feelings about him and jealousy. Kind of hard when you desperately want him to treat you like he does others."
That was met with a silence and Artemis sagged and crossed her arms on the counter and rested her head on them. Eyes stared at Itisha, "How do you do it?"
"Do what, Artemis?"
"This. Compassion. I have had so many hunters scream their vengeance. They would have wiped out entire villages if they lost their children as you have. They become cold and bleak."
"Because I know what the world becomes when hate fills people. Mind you, I did hunt down and murder the bastards that hurt my kids. But… I also wanted to keep them from hurting other people. I wanted to come home to the kids I still had. I didn't want them to still grow up full of hurt and distrust in the world. They need hope that things can be better."
Eyes close and Artemis frowned as the high pitched series of beeps from the microwave. Itisha slowly got up and collected the plate and turned with the plate and utensils to find Artemis was gone. A blink at something left on the table beside the wine glass with a note.
'Thank you for your hospitality.
- Artemis'
It was a very short note. Itisha frowned and looked at the little package and moved to carefully pick it up. Fingers peeling the paper back and staring at the triple moon pendant in gold with a opal set into the center. A brush of her fingers over the little stars in the curls of the two crescents. Twelve stars in total. Something she suspected was for her children she had The center was the most astonishing though. The double bows and arrow etched in gold on the opal.
"There is hope for you yet, Artemis. Thanks for the gift." A shift to sit down and she started eating the food, staring at the necklace and debating on what that all meant.