Unrequited

Hephaestus limped toward the view of the pair set before his charcoal eyes. The skies were dark and beautiful; the night was warm and alluring. He had proved how romantic it was upon the sight of a familiar good looking man in a set of armour. How can he forget? This was the same man who stripped his wife off him in a series of sinful pleasures on his bed. The same man whom he had nothing from himself to compare against. This Ares had everything he requested from life's luxuries: the perfection of every detail in his physical aspects, a breathtaking manly appearance; even his scent can make a lady swoon. He loathed the war god. He hated those wicked scarlet eyes, those strands of jet black hair, the vision of his fair skin and the ripples of his biceps. He hated them so, because these were what can make his wife lick her lips like a lioness who celebrates her victory over a weakened prey.

More so, he couldn't do anything but feel entrapped in a web of sadness as he silently watched the war god please another female unfamiliar to him. She must've been one among the mortal princesses whom he swept off their feet. The rose garden glittered, and Ares ran his lips across the woman's neck and on the lobe of her ear he whispered words which can easily lay her on his bed. She was no doubt feeling intense ecstasy from his words alone, and the god feasted on her pinkish lips as his fingers formed a fist on her red coils of hair.

Hephaestus sighed and disappeared among the shadows discreetly as a ghost. He walked along, willing himself to reach his temple and take a rest from another day's hard work from furnishing Zeus' thunderbolts. As he did so, his mind stopped at another site among the willow trees whose leaves glimmered against the darkness. Below a willow was a bench with which he saw the most beautiful creature in Olympus.

Her back faced him, and he knew whom those waves of golden hair belonged to. Her perfume smelled distinctly of strawberries and honey. She wore a backless white tunic with only ribbons holding the weight of the silken hem. Whatever she was doing there, it was certainly a matter of invisible despair. It took him longer seconds to decide whether to reach out to her or not, but he cannot deny how he missed her when she was once his wife.

"Will you not rest yet?"

Aphrodite looked behind and their eyes met but she pretended not to be surprised and merely returned to where she was once looking at before he came. Hephaestus sighed and sat with her instead, still respecting some distance between them. She isn't the same woman who would smile innocently anymore whenever he comes home, she is his wife no longer since she had given up his company and chose to live her life bound to one who is just as handsome equalled to her beauty.

"Waiting for him...?" he queried without looking at her, instead looks forward to where her eyes were set upon: star studded heavens and wisps of night clouds. This time she merely nodded. It was a good start to start a conversation which broke his heart.

Hephaestus sighed, "Are you certain he will come? For sure you've waited long enough." He can see it from the indistinct shivering of her body from the cold which overtook her.

"I can still wait...he might be tending to his people for now." She replied as her lashes lowered and he gave him a thoughtful smile.

He gulped and felt his skin shrinking. Though hurt as he is, he may never see her hurt by telling her the truth of Ares' whereabouts. "Aphrodite...he won't be coming. Go and rest." He looked away as to hide the tears surfacing from his wise tired eyes.

"Of course he will...go ahead and rest, I need to wait for him. He needs me." She affirmed, unknowledgeable of the tear which slipped from his eye. "He loves me," she gave herself a comforting smile, thinking of how, years before, when she and Ares lay on Hephaestus' bed. Those were years of immaculate passion and hunger for each other's caress. She can see them on their mind, refreshing the time when she told him, "I will leave everything for you. I love you," and Ares gave her a false concerned look, "you don't have to." "But I will." "Aphrodite, I'm not asking you to do that,"

She couldn't understand why Ares would reject her proposition; but still she left everything empty in the arms of her husband to dedicate them to Ares. But there were secrets she knew which existed in Ares' whereabouts. Secrets which she didn't want to open for sure it would suffocate and lead her to insanity. Ares might have loved her, but loved her temporarily and not as deep as she cared for him.

Hephaestus stood to leave after bidding her goodnight. He was two steps away when he decided to look back and called her attention, awakening her from reminiscing moments with her lover. It was he who knew those secrets about Ares which she was fearful to disclose, but decided to keep it to himself for he loved her too dear to break her heart as she did to his. Time will soon reveal the truth, and as of now he was weak to ever see her cry. It pained him, not because she left, but because she was unloved by her beloved.

"Aphrodite..." he breathed before continuing, "...if you need someone to confide to, to comfort you soon. I'll be here waiting." And with that he turned away so as to wipe the tears which he couldn't contain no longer.

My first Hephaestus/Aphrodite fic. Hope you liked it.

Please review :D

AthenAres