CHAPTER 127(Trifecta HQ)

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)

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pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene

CHAPTER START---

Sitting in Hephaestus's lounge, the Trifecta relax, Thalie and Welf enjoy the interior heating of Babel as they remove their jackets. After escorting Takemikazuchi familia to their housing complex the three adventurers immediately contacted Hephaestus and rushed over to her.

"Still can't believe you guys were ok with Freya decorating our suites..." Yang says.

"Meh, too late to go back...besides I spend most of my time in the forge," Welf shrugs at the thought.

"Hopefully it makes me feel like a queen, she always carries herself like one so that's what I'm hoping for," Thalie admits, earning a raised brow from both men.

"Yeah I used to think so too, then I saw her eat chocolate bars in bed, that woman is the enemy of white sheets everywhere," he rolls his eyes at the memory.

"Welcome back!" Hephaestus says as she saunters into the room. Giving everyone a once over her eyes settle onto Thalie before nervously looking over to Welf who was blatantly avoiding eye contact with her. "Did you get it?" she asks the woman.

In response Yang simply withdraws the Vitality Crystal from his inventory and hands it to Hephaestus, the woman doesn't even admire it before stuffing it into her pocket.

"Ok, let's go," she says, turning on her heel and walking out of the room with the adventurers following her.

"So did we miss anything big?" Yang asks.

"Well your girlfriend was upset you missed the goddess festival, she cheered up pretty quick when it was time to decorate your suites at least. Was your trip good?"

"Uh, got to see Thalie work way too up close for my comfort," he cringes at the memory before a more pleasant experience comes to mind, "OH! I swam with a shark, 30ft shark, it was awesome..."

Hephaestus stops in her tracks to give him a concerned look before shaking her head and continuing down the hallway, "why can't you be normal and stay away from sharp teeth..."

"Uh the elevators are the other way," Thalie points out, noticing they're heading deeper into the residential area of floor 50.

"For security purposes, we had to remove elevator access to your floor."

"That doesn't make sense, why?" Welf asks.

"Because a certain someone is sleeping with a very dangerous woman that controls the most powerful familia in the world. The last thing you want is an elevator shaft that doubles as your front door. This way to get to you they have to walk through our familia floors. The entrance to your floor is here," she says as they come to an adamantite door at the end of the hallway. The Trifecta symbol is carved into the face of the otherwise smooth metal door.

"Wow, subtle..." Thalie says.

"Follow my lead," Hephaestus says as she places her hand onto the door, runes immediately glow on the metal," put a hand on it so the security enchantments don't lock you out."

Doing as she said they each rest a hand on the door, after a few seconds the glowing stops and the door opens.

"There, now you have access to the floor, the room doors operate in the same way but also have physical locks for...guests," she looks directly at Yang while saying this.

"Yeah yeah, I get it."

Walking into the door they begin ascending the red carpet stars behind Hephaestus as she fills them in, "Freya is already in the system, she has access to the floor door and Yang's room but nothing else without one of you letting her in, each of you has access to everything. This place cost a literal fortune to build because you have three suites, the world's most well-made and well-stocked forge, and an expedition planning room. The forge and planning room are the main reasons security is so tight here, not that anyone would be dumb enough to try, but considering someone sent Thalie to break into my vault it's not impossible for someone to try and break into the vault in your expedition room, it doubles as an armory," she says.

"Was everything made to order?" Welf asks, a smile on his face as if he can feel the warmth of the forge, unable to hide his excitement at the idea.

"Exactly as you wanted, the new magic crystal furnace even has one load ready, my treat," she says as they arrive at the top of the stairs, finding themselves in a hallway with the same red carpet floor.

In front of them are five doors in the hallway, on the right are two doors. One with a blue flame and another with a gold spear. To the left is a door with a red flame and another with a smithing hammer.

Directly ahead is a room with their team symbol carved into the door.

All doors are made of Adamantite with runes glowing across their surface, silver steel completely smooth.

"Uh, do I even wanna know how much money is still in our account?" Yang asks hesitantly.

Glancing at him before walking forward, Hephaestus gives him an awkward smile, "you're currently in the red actually, I had to pay out of pocket for some of this stuff so you owe me almost a billion Valis, nothing a trip to floor 58 can't solve."

"Jesus Christ... I'll deal with that before the week ends I guess."

"Thank you, now Freya is waiting for you in your suite, knowing her she's probably naked in your bed trying to get her scent on everything," Hephaestus rolls her eyes at her love-crazed sisters' obsessive nature.

"Well I should go help her, lets have a meeting tomorrow to plan the next expedition alright," Yang receives nods from his teammates before walking into his room.

"Tsubaki is in yours so go deal with that," Hephaestus says to Thalie. The woman immediately rolls her eyes at the thought and enters her suite.

Leaving only Hephaestus and Welf staring at each other in the hallway.

Without a word, Hephaestus walks over to his door and places her hand on it, as the runes glow she pushes the door open and walks inside.

Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, Welf follows behind her.

"Wow," was the first word out of his mouth, entering into a hallway with grey tiles and white walls. Seeing what would be called a modern living area and kitchen with grey couches and a high-end glass coffee table. Large windows for him to look out at the city but tinted so the sun won't be blinding and Hephaestus already sitting on the couch, awkwardly staring down at her hands in her lap.

"All the apartments are exactly the same, well aside from the bedrooms. Freya used the colors on the doors for them. Yours has a door leading to the forge at the end of the hallway, then another in the forge connecting to the planning room," she points to a hallway at the end of the room. "Left room is your bedroom with a private bathroom, the right rooms are the guestroom and bathroom."

"Damn, I...I never thought I'd live somewhere like this..." he mutters softly while walking around the room touching everything.

"Most adventurers can't afford this, the rent for the floor alone would bankrupt most familias."

"Do I want to know how much?"

"A few million a month, before utilities and the cost of running your forge."

"My gods."

"Look Welf, about...about the tasks I gave Thalie, I'm s---"

"STOP!" Welf suddenly interrupts her, startling the woman. Taking a deep breath he continues while walking over to her. "Look, I had a talk with Yang ok... he explained some stuff to me, about gods and stuff. I don't exactly get it as good as he does but, I don't think I can forgive how you gods just throw away innocent lives like that, but I'll try to understand alright. For you Hephaestus."

"I-I was so scared..." her shaky voice reached out for him, the trembling goddess stared down at her lap as he sat beside her. "I thought you hated me, y-you just...you left without even saying anything and---"

"And I came back, because I'll always come back, I can't be with you if I'm not here right," he gently takes her hand in his, giving her a light squeeze to remind her that he's here.

"I did it for you," she blurts out, completely catching him off guard.

"What?"

"I...I always hated being scorned by the gods but, I just...I got used to it. But I couldn't stand the thought of you turning away from me, so I got desperate. Aphrodite was a friend of mine, she said she found a potion to perfect the sealed bodies we gods have to use to roam the lower world...I figured..."

"That it would fix your eye..."

"I know ok, but, I got desperate..."

"As I said, I'll always be here for you," Welf says, his voice low as he cups her face with both hands and turns her head to him.

Leaning in toward her, the goddess freezes, her face overtaken with a blush matching her red hair as her breathing becomes erratic, body hot as her eyes can only focus on his lips.

As her mind becomes foggy and she's about to close her eyes, in one swift motion she feels her eyepatch slip off her head as his hand removes it.

"NO!" she cries out, frantically trying to pull away only for his strong arms to hold onto her face, keeping her in front of his unwavering gaze, two piercing eyes staring directly at her normally covered right eye.

"Hmmm," Welf frowns slightly as he leans in to take a closer look, ignoring the tears flowing from her eyes as she pounds her hands into his chest to get him to let her go. "Well would you look at that... guess you aren't perfect after all," her hands suddenly stop as he says this, falling weakly to her sides as she tries to process this.

"I-I'm..."

"A perfect goddess would know this little thing can't stop me, and yet you call Freya dramatic," he casually says while giving her a mischievous grin and standing up, releasing her face to pull her into a tight hug.

"W-what?"

"What? Didn't you hear me, that little thing won't stop me, I'm gonna make something that impresses you them make you mine, remember?"

Hephaestus stepped away from the hug completely dazed and confused, staring at him with both eyes as she tries to make sense of this.

"But... I"

"Am the woman who I look up to, and this little thing won't change that."

Realizing her eye was still exposed, Hephaestus immediately snaps back to her senses and places a hand over her eye, hiding it once more.

With a deep sigh Welf gives her a small frown, "alright, I know you did this for more than just me... use the potion if you want but, no matter what I'll always be here for you. Got it?"

Freezing at his words once more, Hephaestus takes a moment to think over exactly what he's saying. Considering very carefully what her next move should be here.

Deciding to take a bold step for her but not quite at the level of a play from her sister Freya's book, she rushes forward and removes her hand from her eye, wrapping both her arms around his midsection and pulling him into a tight hug.

Burying her face in his shirt and letting the tears flow, she lets all the pent-up emotions she's bottled up run out as she cries against someone who won't call her a monster and run away. And even better, someone she actually wants to be with.

After a minute of soaking his shirt with her tears, she finally speaks, "you need to hurry up and make something good, so I can give you a real reward."

She hears Welf's heart skip a beat, causing her to giggle at the sound.

"Trust me, I'm working on it," he says as she lets go, taking a step away from him.

"I hope you don't think less of me, but... I'm going to take the potion, I have to at least try," she says.

"I told you I'd support you no matter what, I meant it."

"Thank you...I should go."

"If you have to," he hands her back her eyepatch.

Hesitating a bit before she puts it on and walks away, Hephaestus decided to be daring once more and push her luck.

Looking up at him to meet his eyes, once more he looks into her deformed eye. The eyeball is a sickly grey with blood-red veins swollen on the surface of it, the pupil a pale orange, split in two and floating about independently as the eyeball itself constantly twitches and moves around without Hephaestus's input. But Welf's smiling face doesn't even flinch, he accepts her as she is. There is no disgust in his expression, only adoration...maybe even love the goddess hopes...

With a spring in her step and a wide smile on her face, Hephaestus walks away after putting on her eyepatch, making sure to sway her hips just a bit more for him to see, she didn't want to wait too long so there was nothing wrong with some extra motivation after all...

END CHAPTER---

This is favourite canon ship btw.

Fun Fact: If this fanfic were a single standardly printed novel, this would be a little over 1K pages thus far. 296K words :)