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“By the gods! Look at this mess!”
The plump, older yet energetic goddess of the hearth exclaimed as she shimmered into Ares’ home temple in Corinth. There were toys and clothes thrown all over the place and all the furniture was moved out of place and some even turned over. All of the wall hangings were either crooked or lay in piles on the floor, some apparently torn, others used as paint canvases. The temple was basically in shambles.
“Ares! Joxer! Dearies?!” Hestia exclaimed, hoping that one of them knew what had happened here. A soft sound caught her attention.
“Hello? Anyone there?” She tried again.
This time the muffled sounds were accompanied by a definite ‘thump’ and a rustling, which had her turning in time to see a pair of feet stick out from underneath of the tapestries that used to hang on the wall on the far east wall.
Hestia rushed forward, uncovering a tied up Joxer underneath the mess of tapestries.
“Oh my!” she exclaimed. Waving her hand, she undid the knots on the ropes holding the mortal.
Joxer struggled to get free from the ropes and untangle himself from heavy woven cloths. As soon as his hands were free he pulled out the rag that had been shoved into his mouth.
“Oh dear! What happened? Who did this to you?”
But Joxer didn’t answer. As soon as his left foot was free of the rope, he took off down the corridor, shouting out and opening doors and looking briefly inside every single room.
Hestia turned as red as her fires as the young mortal let out a stream of very inventive curses as he came back down the corridor to stand at her side.
“Joxer? What’s wrong, child? What happened here?”
Joxer looked down to meet the goddess’ eyes. He shuddered and Hestia could clearly see the fear in his eyes.
“They’re gone.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“What do you mean, ‘gone’?” Ares asked, his voice deceptively calm. “Where are they?”
Hestia lay a hand on her favorite nephew’s arm and spoke softly. “Ares, calm down.”
Joxer looked at his lover then at Hestia. He bent down slightly to whisper at her. “But he *is* calm.”
Hestia chuckled. “Oh no dearie. He’s about to explode. You both still need to get to know each other a bit more.”
“I know. But Ares been so busy undoing all of Athena’s mess that we hardly have any time for each other,” Joxer admitted to Hestia. He didn’t know what it was about Ares’ aunt that made him tell her all of the things that bothered him.
“If you’re quite done telling the world all of our ‘marital’ problems, there’s still the issue of my missing sons and nephew!” Ares roared.
Hestia glanced at Joxer, giving him a ‘didn’t I tell you’ look, which made Joxer chuckle.
“Ares, I’ve already set blocks in three, five and ten mile radiuses. Within the timeframe and their capabilities they shouldn’t have gone any further than that.”
“Well that’s nice,” the war god sneered. “But they shouldn’t have been able to leave in the first place.” He directed that last part to the mortal.
“Oh no! Don’t make this out to be *my* fault! You should have known to make the blocks in the temple better. You made it so they couldn’t shimmer out, but not so they couldn’t walk out! Which was exactly what they did.”
Hestia stepped in between the lovers trying to stop the inevitable fight.
“Ares, Joxer. Come now, we have other important business to attend to.”
“No, Aunt Hestia,” Ares interrupted. “Let him have his say. It is obviously more important than getting the twins and Erin back. Let him explain how he managed to let this happen.”
“Let this happen? Damn it, Ares! I’m only a mortal or did you forget? I’ve never had to take care of all three of them on my own before. And they knew that I was in over my head. I had no way to control them. They knew it and took advantage of it. They may be kids, but they *are* gods, and between the three of them they’re a force to be reckoned with. Erin figured out he could walk outside the temple so they ambushed me and tied me up and left. And I was calling for you! You didn’t answer me. Why didn’t you answer me?” Joxer ended his tirade rather pathetically.
Hestia looked at both men and knew they’d just entered private territory, but for the life of her she couldn’t leave. She figured they would need a referee sooner or later. So she decided to make herself useful and searched outward for Erin’s power signature in order to pinpoint his location. She came out of her mental search when Ares mumbled something.
“Speak up, darling, I didn’t hear you,” she said for her and Joxer’s sake.
“I said I wasn’t listening.”
“Weren’t listening to what?” Hestia asked, already knowing the answer.
“To me,” Joxer answered her. “You weren’t listening to me. Why?”
“I wasn’t listening at all… to any mortal.”
“And I just happen to fall in that category,” Joxer said, defeated. “Look we got to find the kids.”
As Joxer made to leave the temple, Ares stepped forward and stopped him, grabbing his arms gently and pulling the mortal to him.
“Jox… I’m sorry. I should have been paying attention to you, it just got…” Ares struggled to find the right word.
“Overwhelming,” Hestia supplied. “It’s normal for newly declared gods to not be able to handle the sudden onslaught of mortals praying, pledging themselves and their families to their service, and listing their demands. It takes a while for us to learn to separate the important from the dribble. But you’re never going to learn, Ares, if you just shut it down!” she reprimanded the war god as she finished her explanation.
“I know, Aunt Hestia.”
“Anyway, I originally came here to let you know that I was making sweet cakes if you, Joxer and the kids, who by the way are tormenting poor Iolaus, wanted to come over later and eat some while we watch the sun set,” the hearth goddess said with a smile.
Though he’d never admit it, childish glee shone from Ares’ eyes at the mention of sweet cakes. “We’ll be there. Should I bring anything, Aunt Hestia?”
“No, dearie, it’s fine. Now I’ll go get the kids and spoil them a little before you swoop in and punish them for half a century,” she said smiling. “I’ll take them to my temple on Olympus. And you really should get Hephaestus to make some of those inhibitor bracelets of his for them.”
Hestia came up on her tiptoes and kissed both of them on their cheeks.
“And Ares, please, don’t be too hard on them. After all, it’s just that they want attention.”
“They got it, alright!” the war god said, rolling his eyes.
“You must understand that all the time you’re devoting to your duties as god of war you’re neglecting your duties as dad, uncle and lover. Hush!” she reprimanded when Ares tried to protest. “You know I always keep an eye on you. I know what’s going on. You don’t want to undo all the positive changes in your life and future by neglecting what’s really important. It’s not that you need to go back to being Olympus’ favorite babysitter. I know you’re busier now. But making time to spend with Joxer, your sons and nephews… *that* needs to come first.”
“I get it, Aunt Hestia.”
“You’re good *for* each other, so be good *to* each other,” she gave one last piece of advice before shimmering out, and rescuing Iolaus and his forge from her grandnephews.
Joxer sighed. He walked over to the couch and threw himself on it.
“The kids are okay,” he declared, his voice tired.
“Yeah.”
The silence stretched for what seemed like an eternity, but in reality couldn’t have been more than two minutes.
“Are you? Okay, I mean,” Ares asked as he settled next to Joxer.
Joxer just looked at him.
“Are you mad at me?”
Joxer sighed again and pulled on Ares until the war god was laying across the couch, his head on Joxer’s lap. Ares smiled contentedly when the mortal started to run his fingers through his hair.
“Not mad… maybe just a bit miffed that you didn’t answer me. It’s just… with me tied up and under that tapestry, it felt like I was back in the future… poor, wannabe Joxer, who couldn’t take care of himself, even against three little kids. The Joxer that prayed and prayed and never got a response.”
“From me.”
“Yeah.”
Ares reached up with his right hand and pulled Joxer down for a gentle kiss.
“Jox… I don’t know what I would have become, but I know that the Ares that you knew doesn’t exist. I’m not him. You stopped that. You made… you *make* me better.”
Joxer would have turned to a little puddle of melted warrior if he could have, instead, he chose to plunder Ares’ mouth with a deep, soulful kiss. Ares moved off Joxer’s lap and maneuvered them so Ares ended sitting with Joxer straddling him, without breaking the kiss. He held the young man’s face with gentle hands and pulled away.
Joxer’s eyelids fluttered opened and he locked eyes with Ares. The war god’s smile was small but it filled his eyes. “I love you, Joxer.”
It was the first time it had been said in the month they’d been together. Joxer’s smile was so brilliant it would have sent Apollo looking for shade.
“I love you too!”
Ares’ hands moved to the mortal’s hair, and he pulled a very willing Joxer close. “You’re my number one priority,” he whispered, before claiming his lover’s mouth.
The kiss ended prematurely when Hestia’s sweet voice sounded inside the temple.
“If you’re both done making up, the boys are ready to apologize to Joxer.”
Ares smiled again, got up and with Joxer in tow, shimmered to his favorite aunt’s temple.
The End