Hey there guys. Striker777 here with a new book for some light editing. I'm a huge, and I mean huge, fan of ancient Greece, so I decided to write a story on the love between Aphrodite and Hephaestus. Be sure to also check out my wattpad Striker777 for some other works, as that is my main account, and this is my account for other stuff. But for now, on with the story.

Chapter 1

Aphrodite was upset. No, upset wasn't the right way to describe her emotional state at the current time. She was… what was she? She had never felt like this before, never once in her 2000 years of existence. So why is she feeling this now?

The object of her strife was none other than her 'husband', Hephaestus. The 'Ugly God' as his family (her included) liked to call him behind his back. He never reacted to it, never once when he had obviously heard them, not for his 2000 years of existence.

Today was the day that came to a stop.

Today was the day that the forge god snapped.

He said he had had it. He was done with their bullshit and flashed off to Chaos knows where. And the worst of it? The council sent her to see if he was alright. They never cared about him before, so it sure was strange to start caring now.

So, with a grunt of dissatisfaction, she made her way to the villa that Hephaestus had made home. It was not as luxurious as the palaces of the other gods, just like one of the ones she saw in her Venus form when she visited Pompeii. Such a beautiful city.

She walked in, as Hephaestus didn't answer the door, probably in his workshop, and made her way around the house to search for the Ugly God.

She heard sobbing not too long after she started looking.

She made her way towards the sound, which grew louder and louder with each step she took, and eventually landed in front of her husband's door. She didn't feel like talking to him, so she instead pressed her ear against the door and listened in to the god.

He continued to sob for a while, and Aphrodite eventually grew bored, deciding to walk out.

But a muttering of the creator's name stopped her.

"Chaos? Why? Why is this happening to me? Why did this happen to me? Explain to me what I did before I was Hephaestus to make me this way." said the god, causing Aphrodite to listen in once more. "My family laughs at me behind my back, tormenting me. They think I don't know, but I do. My own mother cast me off Olympus when I was just a baby due to my condition, and my own father denies me as his child unless it suits him. My brothers and sisters all find me repulsive, and my own wife, who I have not stopped loving since day one, sleeps with my brother because I am not good enough. WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS TORTURE CHAOS DAMN IT!" screamed the god, which was followed by an audible crash. Before he finished with one last question.

"Why does no one love me?"

Aphrodite, ever since, has felt this ache in her chest. It is not the same as the ache of lust that she was well accustomed with. This one felt more… what was the word? Gut wrenching? She thought that's what the mortals called it. She hated how this feeling wouldn't go away, and wished that it would. She didn't want to feel this anymore.

She had retreated back to her mansion, lying on her bed and staring at the ceiling, trying to piece together the puzzle that was her existence at the moment. The meeting was probably long over by now, but she couldn't care less. She was done.

"Aphrodite?" asked a familiar voice. Aphrodite turned to see her favourite fuckbuddy, Ares. "Where were you? I missed you."

"At Hephaestus' place, trying to figure out what was wrong." said Aphrodite. She contemplated telling her lover, but decided against it, finding it irrelevant if he knew or didn't know. "He wasn't there."

"Whatever. He's probably jacking off in a dark corner somewhere. All I need to know…" began the god, "is that I'm a little backed up at the moment, and who better to help me with that problem than my favourite cocksleeve?"

Aphrodite perked up. Maybe sex could help her. Zeus knows how much she loved sex, and how amazing it felt to be filled with her lover's jizz. Biting her lip, she threw off her dress and beckoned him to come to her.

She started to hurt more

As it turned out, fucking Ares is not what she needed.

She tried everything with him, missionary, doggy, cowgirl, any position you could think of and then more, but nothing worked. Not even anal, and gods above did she love anal! She didn't even finish. Despite Ares finishing a multitude of times, both outside and inside of her, she never got off once.

Now, she was where she usually was after fucking with Ares, on the other side of the bed with no covers or pillows, the selfish bastard taking them all for himself. And the feeling only got worse, as what once was a sinking feeling turned into a flood of epic proportion.

Now what was she meant to do? If sex didn't help, what would? What would possibly help with this feeling anymore. She needed help, but from who?

She got a brilliant idea.

Athena was washing her shield when one of her maidens alerted her to the presence of another goddess. Athena made her way through the house to the living room, spotting Aphrodite on one of the lounges. 'Chaos above, what does she want?'

"Aphrodite. What brings you here?" asked the goddess of wisdom.

"I need help." said Aphrodite. "There's this feeling in my chest, and it won't go away. Not even sex helped me! What do I do?"

"If there's something wrong with your body, you should have gone to Apollo." said the goddess.

"But if I went to Apollo, he'd end up fucking me, and that makes the pain worse." said the goddess of sex. "I have nowhere else to turn, so help me, please."

This was new. Never once had Aphrodite ever asked for anything, not even a please. She simply demanded. Whatever this feeling was, she wanted it gone so bad she was willing to ask for once, maybe even beg. But Athena was already trying to comprehend the asking, and begging may be too far of a stretch for the proud goddess.

"Alright. Start at the beginning."

And so she did. She recounted what she went through at the house of her husband, the pain, and how fucking Ares, which she had no problem with before, now bothered her to no end and the pain inside her grew.

'Dear Zeus she's an idiot.' thought the wisdom goddess.

"Alright. I know the problem now." said Athena.

"Do you know how to fix it?" asked Aphrodite.

"Only you can know how to fix this problem for yourself." responded the wisdom goddess. "However, I can identify the cause of this discomfort."

"What is it?"

"Guilt."

"Huh?"

"You feel guilty about how you have treated Hephaestus after his rant, and now your heart wants to make things right. That is the source of your pain. Guilt."

"You really think it's guilt Athena?" asked Aphrodite.

"I can think of no alternatives." replied the goddess.

"Oh… oh my… you're right." said Aphrodite, the truth dawning on her. "OH CHAOS! WHAT HAVE I DONE?!" cursed the goddess as she sunk into herself and cried.

'What… what is happening?' thought the other goddess.

"I'VE BEEN SO BLIND ATHENA! ALL THAT TIME, HE SHOWERED ME WITH GIFTS, I THOUGHT IT WAS HOW HE INVITED SEX! BUT HE NEVER MADE A MOVE! I AM SO STUPID!" cried the goddess of love. "ALL THIS TIME, I'VE BEEN FUCKING HIS FAMILY AND HE ALWAYS TOOK IT ON THE CHIN! I NEVER SAW THE PAIN, BECAUSE HE NEVER STOPPED LOVING ME! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?!"

"Um… I'm a virgin goddess. This isn't my strong suit." said Athena, patting Aphrodite on the back as she clung to her, crying into her lap.

"I'm so stupid! Ares never loved me! He loved the sex! And Hephaestus always loved me! I'm so stupid!" continued the distraught goddess. She continued crying. "He never once asked for it, even before I fucked up! I'm a horrible person!"

Athena could only sit there awkwardly as the crying goddess soaked her lap with tears.

Hestia was simply watching the heath when the doors to the councilroom flew open. She looked over with a warm smile, ready to greet whatever member of her family walked in.

She did not expect a crying Aphrodite being held up by Athena.

"Tag, you're it." said the goddess of wisdom, dropping the love goddess and flashing out of the councilroom. Hestia only sweatdropped as Aphrodite continued to cry on the floor.

Moments passed between the two, Hestia too dumbstruck to know how to react to the weeping goddess of sex on the floor of the council room. She simply walked over to the goddess of love and sat down, legs crossed, in front of her.

"Alright Aphrodite, let's take this from the top. What happened?"

And so began the almost indescribable rant about how she was a horrible person, how she wanted to get together with Hephaestus for real and her pleading for help.

"I don't know why Athena dropped you off here. I am a virgin goddess as well."

"I just need some help…" muttered Aphrodite, utterly exhausted from her crying and her throat becoming hoarse.

"I could teach you how to surprise him, like cooking him a nice dinner and helping him relax after a long day in the forges, and some housework."

"Seems like a feminists worst nightmare." muttered Aphrodite. "The goddess of love becoming nothing more than a housewife to the Ugly God."

Aphrodite gasped and covered her mouth, tears pooling in her sore eyes again.

"I said it again."

"It's alright Aphrodite." said Hestia. "It's not like he'll expect you to do a complete 180 in one afternoon."

"But he's in love with me, and I act like this…" muttered the goddess of sex.

"But you're trying to change." said Hestia, "And that means a lot more than the results, the determination to change and to not give up when trying to better yourself."

"You… you really think so?" asked Aphrodite.

"Of course!" said the virgin goddess. "However, to truly apologise to him, we need the help of someone else, a goddess who has experience in this kind of thing."

"If you leave me with Atremis, I'll scream."

Artemis was at a loss for words, much like her stepmother beside her. The two of them bumped into each other on Olympus making their way to somewhere. Artemis ws on her way to her brother's temple to retrieve some medicine for one of her sick hunters, who wasn't doing so well, and Hera was on the way to her garden to spend some quality time with herself and her flowers.

Then, out of nowhere, Hestia, with a clearly upset Aphrodite appeared before them.

Now, Hestia was explaining the situation to Hera, as Artemis looks at Aphrodite in absolute disbelief.

No way. There was no way. She'd sooner see Hades wearing fluro pink than Aphrodite admitting she was wrong, let alone about this. This was… what was the word?

Strange? No, that wasn't it. It was, but it wasn't the word she was looking for. It was…

Delirious. That was the word. She was delirious. There was no way in Tartarus that the most prideful goddess, who is even more prideful than Athena herself, would ever admit to her wrongdoings.

It made no sense.

"I see. So you came to me on advice on how to get him to forgive you." said Hera, looking at the love goddess as though she grew a second head.

"Please! I'll do anything!" said Aphrodite.

"Well, I don't think we need to go that far, but how about an I.O.U?" asked the queen of the gods.

"Thank you so much!" squealed Aphrodite, breaking down into tears of happiness, whilst mumbling something about forgiveness and regrets.

Artemis was… in desperate need to hunt something and clear her mind.

Hera began giving advice, that commitment and persistence to being a better person will help to stabilize her relationship with her husband, and to give him time to process the obvious shock that will follow the initial attempts to mend their relationship, and to talk it out like adult gods, much like they were. Aphrodite proceeded to thank Hera profusely before rushing off to Hephaestus' villa, Hestia in tow.

Artemis just sighed, feeling a looming headache coming along.

"Okay Aphrodite, let's do this." said hestia, helping Aphrodite tie her gorgeous blonde hair back into a ponytail to keep it away from the food.

"Do you really think this will help?" asked Aphrodite.

"As sure as the Heath is burning." replied the kind goddess. "Now, let's start this by making some plans. What do we want to cook?"

"I asked some of the cyclopi that work at his workshop when he wasn't looking, and they say that he loves Mexican." replied Aphrodite.

"Alright then, Mexican it is. How about some pork nachos?" asked Hestia.

"Sounds good." replied the goddess of love, the fire of determination filling her eyes.

Hephaestus knew something was up.

He was no fool, and he knew Aphrodite had entered his workshop, since she wasn't exactly the best at hiding her presence. When he asked some of the cyclopi that worked in that area what she wanted, they only smirked and told him to wait for that night to find out.

Logically speaking, it was a cruel joke that even his workers wanted to see. So he made the short track back to his house, which he constructed himself, but was surprised to see some of the lights on.

'Isn't that my kitchen?' asked the god to himself, and snuck in, doing a much better job than his wife did earlier.

As he approached the kitchen, he heard voices.

"How does it look?" asked a familiar voice, the voice of his wife.

"Wonderful." replied another. Was it Hestia? "He's going to love it."

"I hope he does. I just want him to understand where I'm coming from." said Aphrodite.

They cooked something, probably for Ares. He could smell it. It smelt of pork, spices and cheese, making his mouth water slightly. Mexican, his favourite. Did Ares like it too? Probably the only thing the two brothers had in common. Cooking her lover a meal in her husband's kitchen, and his favourite food no less? Even though he loved her, there was only so much he could take. He went to walk out.

But Hestia's voice stopped him.

"I'm sure Hephaestus will, if you sit him down with good food and intentions. Just be open and honest, and try to make things right, and I'm positive that, given time, he will forgive you."

Hephaestus stopped dead in his tracks. What was going on? Did Aphrodite cook him his favourite, with the help of Hestia, and by going off what she said, did she want to make things right between them?

"It's just, when I look down at this, and think of all the things I did, it doesn't even come close to what I need to do. I screwed up so much… and I'm a fool for only realising that now." said his wife, and he heard her sniffle.

"It certainly isn't worth a full forgiveness, but you need to understand that Hephaestus is going to appreciate the effort that you are putting in the effort to change, and it's most definitely a start." said the motherly goddess.

Hephaestus didn't know what to do. This was a first. Aphrodite wanting to make things right between them. Him? She wanted to make things right with the 'Ugly God'?

This was everything he ever dreamed of.

Having Aphrodite make things right, having a happy life with her, Ares be damned. He felt a feeling in his heart he hadn't felt for a long time.

Genuine happiness.

A warm smile adorning his face, Hephaestus made his presence known to the pair of goddesses.

Aphrodite gasped in surprise. She didn't think he was here. How much had he heard? Did he hear anything at all? Did he have the right idea of what was going on, or did he think this was all for Ares?

All thoughts broke when he held out his arms, inviting her into a hug.

Tears fell from her face as she set down the nachos, rushing into his arms and embracing him, crying into his shoulder. "I'M SO SORRY! I'VE BEEN A FOOL! I'M SO SORRY!" cried Aphrodite into his shoulder, repeating her apology over and over as Hephaestus, he husband caressed her hair.

"It's alright Aphrodite. It's okay."

"It's not… all I've done to you… everything… I want to repent for each and every thing."

"It's going to be alright, my love. We can work together on this." said the kind god. Aphrodite continued to cry and beg for forgiveness, with Hephaestus being the comforting hand that helped her.

Hestia smiled to herself and flashed out of the house, her job done.

And Hephaestus shared his first dinner with his wife that night.

Hey there guys. Thanks for reading. That's all I really have to say, so, until next time, Striker777, over and out.