love Blooming

I'm here to turn myself in and It surrender"

Shock and was written across their face as they heard her words of course Hecate cared nit a bit as her mind was  focused on the matter she was brought here for. While  Athena wasn't the most arrogant of the Olympians she had a great deal of confidence as such surrendering is hardly anything she would do, so it was quite unexpected that she would.

.....

With Aphrodite's palace being destroyed, she had no choice but to temporarily and maybe in the future permanently move to Hephaestus's home of course she took her servant nymphs along with her and now she and Hephaestus were engaged in a sport that Hephaestus had suggested they play. They were playing a game reminiscent of tennis but not quite since most of the rules of tennis didn't apply.

The two of them were playing on the front part of Hephaestus's yard and the game had started relatively normal and slow and Hephaestus slowly increased the strength and speed  of his serves which in turn caused Aphrodite to do the same and now the two of them were moving at incredible speeds that were barely noticeable by human eyes, infact the nymphs and Hephaestus's maid had forgone watching the sport and opted to have chat with each other.

Hephaestus used an incredible amount of strength to hit the ball over to Aphrodite, he hit it over to the side causing her to have to run to it and hit it back with an equal amount of strength back and Hephaestus hit it again increasing the strength once more and each time Aphrodite matched the strength and speed of his hits he would increase the strength of his return hits.

This whole exercise was training, at least for Aphrodite, the game was a way for Hephaestus to measure her, strength, agility and reaction speed and from the looks of it she had those stats at an adequate level far above humans but not quite  close to the gods at least not the ones who can fight, she's below Ares by a large margin. Aphrodite wasn't  a fighter so it was understandable.

While Hephaestus saw this as a training exercise Aphrodite was quite serious in winning against him, at the beginning he had  managed to score a couple of points before she finally got the gist on how to play but unfortunately she hasn't be able get a single point in yet. Hitting the ball with great strength it flew over the net and flew past Hephaestus faster than a bullet and going on to crash on the to the nearby mountain surrounding Hephaestus's home, unfortunately before she could celebrate.

"Alright I think we should stop there today"

He said as he turned looking where the ball had hit and saw a big crater on the side of the mountain and smiled a bit at her strength, she wasn't totally powerless when it comes to physical strength at least.

"what?! No! I haven't won yet"

"That wasn't the point of this though"

"you can't just expect me to play a game and  not expect to want to win Hephaestus, that's not how this works"

Hephaestus raised a brow at her, he hadn't really thought she would be the competitive type, It was good thing that she was.

"Alright fine"

A golden portal appeared right beside Hephaestus and the ball dropped from the portal to his hand. He then casually hit the ball over to Aphrodite and she hit it back, he made fake attempt to hit it back to her and failed and the ball hit the ground.

"there you go, you win"

"No! That's not how I want to win, I don't want you to let me win"

She protested and threw her racket to the ground and frowned, he was definitely insulting her if he thought she would accept such a thing

"we are gonna be here all day if I don't"

He heaved a sigh as he said and shook his head, she was being overly stubborn.

"Are you saying I can't win against you?"

"No, you can't"

"then why don't you prove it?"

"Why don't I just make you a gift instead, as an apology?

He bargained but unfortunately she shook her head, she wasn't going to accept anything but what she wants. As exasperating as it was he did find her to be very lovely in her stubbornness, her pout was quite enchanting.

"You say I can't win against you, my gift should be you proving that as true. So pick up the ball and let's play"

While Hephaestus didn't think he would suffer any major issues regarding Ares's death that didn't mean he had leisure time to spend, Aphrodite needed significant power in order to protect herself after all he can't always be there, that incident with Ares was a coincidence but if she's going to insist on this he might as well give in.

"okay fine but could you come here for a minute"

"I can hear you just fine from over here"

Despite her words she still trotted toward his direction, incidentally she was currently wearing a light pink sport bra and tights, her long hair was tied into a pony tail unfortunately for Hephaestus though she wasn't sweating and as such her sweat was glistening in the sun.

Once she arrived in front of him he took her hand pulled closer to him and grabbed her waist and gave her a quick and chaste kiss in her luscious pink lips, surprising her and stunning her momentarily. Pulling his head back from the kiss he asked.

"Tomorrow then?"

Aphrodite dumbly nodded to his words before coming out of it and snaking her arms around his neck, the blush on her cheeks was followed by a smile.

"that was too quick, I want another"

She leaned head forward and prepared to kiss him back unfortunately their moment was interrupted by another voice that came from above, it was quite stern and menacing.

"Hephaestus, you have been deemed guilty for the death of Ares, do  not resist your arrest"

Despite the words spoken by Nike, Hephaestus could not help but curse in his head, this was quite possibly the third time he has been interrupted while having a moment with his wife, it was almost as It was on purpose.

Nike landed on the ground before reiterating her statement putting emphasis on the phrase do not resist.

"What do you mean he's guilty Ares tried to kill him was he supposed to let him?"

Aphrodite was the first to respond with quite the emotion behind her words, by her voice it was clear she wasn't amused by Nike's statement.

"I'm  sorry but I'm just the enforcer, arguing with me on that is pointless, my job is to arrest you, if you resist I beat you down and drag you to Olympus."

Nike clarified, it doesn't really matter if the situation is unfair or just all that is required of her and the others is to simply arrest those the king says they should arrest and nothing else, half the enjoyment of this—at least for her—is battling those who resist.

"No need to worry Nike I won't resist but I'd like to ask, do I get a fair trial after all I didn't kill Ares for no reason"

Hephaestus asked, the enforcers don't usually move unless Zeus orders them, the fact that one of them is here means that Zeus cares enough for Ares to send the enforcers to arrest him hopefully Zeus cares enough to put him on trial.

"well, I was sent here so usually that means no trial but since you're his son I imagine you should have a fair trial or at least a trial, whether it's Fair or not is not my business"

.....

Athena  was no fool, while it  is true that the sudden increase in power had caused her to get impulsive and suddenly bolt towards Olympus to fight Zeus, she also has a great bit of wisdom meaning that she was able to think things through within the  mere second it took her to arrive. Avenging her mother is her goal but that in no way means she should simply jump in head first without thinking.

The best bet is to wait and See, analyse and plan her next move and patiently wait for the right moment, no matter the amount of power she gains, she  won't  be able to kill Zeus at least not permanently and he'll be reincarnated and he'll return for revenge as such she needs the Scythe and not only that but the plan to have Hephaestus create a weapon to weaken Zeus is still on.

"so what are you gonna do to us, father?"

She asked as the group walked through the Halls of The royal palace. It looked they were moving towards the royal Court room but it didn't seem like Athena would be the one trialled. Incidentally no body had mentioned anything about her skin being darker than usual today.

"for the time being you Hera and Themis will be held within the palace while I deal with Hephaestus"

Athena gave a nod, noting that For a bit of time  Zeus will be busy. the royal palace had no place to hold prisoners  while they waited for a trial instead they just roamed free and are expected to arrive at the court when their trial is about to begin, this is because any enemies or criminals are sent to Tartarus, the fact that you need a trial means that there's a chance you are innocent as such you aren't put in a prison and if you run it's basically admitting your guilt.

Arriving at the court room Zeus went to take his seat unfortunately Hera wasn't here this time around, as he sat Zeus began to contemplate. If Hera never tried to kill him he may have never gotten what he wanted, while it was an open secret that he was cheating on her on the regular he still didn't want to have to sneak around pretending that it's a secret  now he can easily force the idea of polyamory on Hera and she won't be able to refuse and if she does she gets sent to Tartarus, He smirked.

"Father"

Athena  called out and pulled Zeus from within his thoughts, her voice was low almost like a whisper but still loud enough to be heard.

"mhm?"

"What happened to my mother?"

The question caught him unprepared as he remained silent for whole five seconds, this wasn't  the first time Athena had asked him this question, the first time was before  the Gigantomachy a few years after her birth and the answer he gave her that time would be the same as the one  he would give her this time.

"Why are you asking this question again? I told that she died"

"I see"

Athena exited the room feeling disappointed, she had hoped his answer would be different this time or at least he would finish the sentence with "I killed her"  the fact that he won't be honest with her is proof that he never loved her as a daughter. There was a sudden and intense rage that welled up in her heart but she stifled it  and calmed herself.

As Athena  walked our the court Room, 3 individuals appeared, Nike who was being followed by Aphrodite and Hephaestus walked past her. Athena And Hephaestus made eye contact and She found herself blushing a bit recalling what happened earlier with Artemis.

........

A/N: just to clear this is not a harem, Athena Could possibly be a second wife and that's it. So do you guys want Athena as the second wife?

If you looking for a harem, I uploaded 2 chapters of my original story "first prince's harem" you can check it out if you like. it's on my patreon though it won't be updated much since I need to finish this first.

appreciate all of you thanks for reading my stuff 👍