Ashes | (@Aphrodite)
The God of War found himself reaching his hand forward, slowly, gently, to take her chin in his hand. He tilted her head up towards his, consciously attempting to soothe the fire in his chest as he did so. Again, his voice was soft. “I’ve fought too many wars to ever believe they could be one sided. A conflict needs two parties to occur. So no, love, it wasn’t your fault. I had a hand in it too.”
The touch of his skin on her face sent tingles up her spine, but she kept it contained. This was the first sweet contact he had had with her in a while, and she wanted to remember this feeling for as long as she could. “Well then…” Aphrodite took a shaky breath. “Who won?”
“Have you learned nothing in your time with me?”
He felt his hand beginning to heat again as he dragged it across her skin. “In war there are no victors.” His eyes closed briefly, trying to memorize the feel of her. “Can you not see? We both lost.”
Ashes | (@Aphrodite)
“I did stop,” he found himself saying gently. “I stopped everything quite some time ago. As you said, it’s been years.”
Aphrodite’s eyes met his once again. His calm voice had thoroughly surprised her, and the words even more so. Her ever changing colored eyes filled with an unknown emotion, and she wondered momentarily what Ares was seeing right now. She felt disheveled and confused, more than she had in a while, and it was all because of him. And yet, here he was in front of her, when she could say all that she wanted to him. Yet she resisted. “Too many years,” she found herself whispering softly. “And I suppose it’s my fault as well?” she asked, her voice a bit louder this time.
The God of War found himself reaching his hand forward, slowly, gently, to take her chin in his hand. He tilted her head up towards his, consciously attempting to soothe the fire in his chest as he did so. Again, his voice was soft. “I’ve fought too many wars to ever believe they could be one sided. A conflict needs two parties to occur. So no, love, it wasn’t your fault. I had a hand in it too.”
Ashes | (@Aphrodite)
“First you deny your own nature, and now you suggest that everything I’ve just told you is unimportant, or somehow unreal.” He took a third step backwards, trying to give himself space to cool his temper. “I’ve given you my reasons. And they are real. I will not speak just for the sake of doing so— you may not like my words, but every one is true.”
“You try my patience Aphrodite. You always have.”
The goddess pursed her lips as she stared at Ares. “I try your patience? You try my patience! Years, Ares. I waited years. You realize this is the longest conversation we have had in virtually forever? I can’t even,” she ran a hand through her hair, sighing deeply. “Everything you say has importance, though I may not agree with every word, you speak mostly truth. And you are the one making me doubt myself.”
She help up a hand weakly. “So just, stop.” She was not entirely sure what she wanted him to stop herself.
The idea of pity was foreign to him, but he did feel something for her in that moment he saw her hand begin to tremble… not pity, but… longing maybe? He did not long to have her the way he once had, but he longed for her to be happy— even if it wasn’t with him.
But there was also a part that couldn’t forgive her for trying to change him… to tame him.
“I did stop,” he found himself saying gently. “I stopped everything quite some time ago. As you said, it’s been years.”
Ashes | (@Aphrodite)
If the God of War could feel sadness, he might have cried.
“Go on, say it. You are thinking hard, I can tell. Stop thinking and speak. I’m tired of the silence. Speak actual words, what you are thinking. Speak your mind.” She shook her head, and she could feel heat crawling up her face, and a lump forming in her throat. “I’m tired of wondering. Give me- give me a reason why I should think like you, a real reason.”
“First you deny your own nature, and now you suggest that everything I’ve just told you is unimportant, or somehow unreal.” He took a third step backwards, trying to give himself space to cool his temper. “I’ve given you my reasons. And they are real. I will not speak just for the sake of doing so— you may not like my words, but every one is true.”
“You try my patience Aphrodite. You always have.”
Ashes | (@Aphrodite)
And into that moment he whispered, “You forget, my love, all is war.”
Like most things in his life, Ares’ actions had been lightning quick, and powerful. The exchange lasted only moments, and before the Goddess had a chance to react, he had completely released her, and stood back once again— looking down on her with steely eyes, still full of fire.
The love goddess brought her gaze back up to him, and she was met with eyes like steel. She straightened her spine, lifting the strap that had fallen down her shoulder in his entrapment, back onto her shoulder blade. “If love and war go hand in hand as you say they do, then why are you avoiding me? If they are inevitable to each other, why do you stray from me? I am nothing more than that which is love, and you with war, so why are you creating the difference you say that doesn’t exist?”
“I did not say they go hand in hand.” His voice was sharp, nearly cutting off the end of her sentence. “I said Love is a shadow. A figment. An Illusion.” He paused, making sure she absorbed his words. “I said it doesn’t exist. There is War, and only War.”
There was a reason he’d not spent time with Aphrodite in years, and now he was being reminded of it. Her view of the world was skewed, tragically so, it seemed to him. She truly believed that there was a force called Love, and that it was the saving grace of mortals. Even when they’d been together she was incapable of admitting the truth— Love was only the purest form of War.
The light from the torches in the wall sconces played across her face. Even now, when he could strangle her, she was beautiful. Sometimes it made him sick. He took a step backwards— hating the way she made him feel something for her without his consent.
“I create nothing. There is no difference between us, but you still refuse to see that, and I cannot be with you whilst you do.” He thought of all the times they had been together… as much as he wanted her, had always wanted her, he could never bring himself to truly surrender to her the way he wanted to. No wonder he had strayed from her into another womans arms. If there was any woman alive that understood the true nature of the relationship between men & women, it was Tyra— not Aphrodite.
Every touch between he & Tyra had been tinged with an echo of fire and blood. Their love was a War, as all love was. The difference between Aphrodite & Tyra was that Tyra accepted, even embraced, that fact, while Aphrodite refused to. He took another step backwards, away from the Goddess. Sometimes he considered telling her of Tyra, if for no other reason than to have an example to share with her— but even he could not quite bring himself to hurt her in that way. To tell her he had not been faithful.
If the God of War could feel sadness, he might have cried.
//All of his kids actually look like siblings, it’s awesome. ♥
//hah, I never noticed! Epic fan casting is epic.
Ashes | (@Aphrodite)
He began to turn his back, almost without realizing he was doing so. “Come now, we both know that is the true game.”
Aphrodite’s fingers itched to reach out and wipe the blood from her face, but she resisted, not wanting him to one-up her in the situation. His touch sent tingles across her cheek, old hidden feelings creeping up once again. But catching his eye afterwards had those feelings shattering.
His sword had been unsheathed in front of her, and it gave off the same threatening glow that the god himself did, and all she did was fix him with a hard stare. But it was gone back into it’s sheath now, and she let out a slow sigh of relief, almost, her breath light so as to not give off what it truly was.
“As much want for the fight is in a mortal, as is the capacity to love and to want to be cared for.” His form had slightly turned away from her, and she placed her hand on his shoulder, gripping it almost tightly. “Even you, Ares, wanted a little love, even if that want is gone now, didn’t you?” She knew she was stretching the boundaries with her words, but the animosity towards him leaving for so long had built up, and the walls holding the feelings in were cracking.
“The true game all depends on its players. We just decide the cards they are given to play with,” her voice sounded sickly sweet, even to herself, almost as if taunting him, but she could hardly find herself to care. “It’s not my fault people like my cards better,” she breathed basically into his ear.
The God laughed then, a short, sharp sound— like a bark— no trace of mirth in it. “What is love but the desire to consume, and to be consumed in return?” Aphrodite’s hand on his shoulder was firm, more firm a touch than he would normally allow… but he didn’t shrug it off, he simply turned to face her more squarely once again. 
“All these mortals, fauning over you— what is it they want, do you think?” He stepped closer to her, leaning down from his height to stare into her eyes. “You think they want to be cared for? To care for you?” He laughed again, the same short sharp sound, echoing in the halls of Olympus. “No, they want reassurance that their lives aren’t meaningless. That someone can stand them for more than five seconds. And they want to possess you. Not care for you. A mortal cannot see a thing of beauty without wanting to possess it.”
He stood up to his full height again, considering her face. “Not that I can truly blame them for that— you are, still, a thing of beauty. But this give & take, this thing called love, it is nothing more than the desire to lose oneself in another. The way they grab at each other constantly…”
His words trailed off. She was, always had been, a beautiful creature. That was her blessing, and her curse. To be ever sought after, coveted, but never truly seen. He’d thought to offer her that once… he’d believed he could see her for who she was, not as everyone expected her to be. But even that desire, he now realized, was just that— desire.
“There is a saying, perhaps you’ve heard it.” He finally continued, “All’s fair in love and war. Why do you think that is, my sweet?”
There was a moment of silence— pure stillness between them— he could almost feel the air vibrating around them, pulsing with the anger he always kept brimming just beneath his surface. And in the next moment he had the Goddess pinned against the wall, his right forearm at her throat, his left arm gripping her right wrist. The pressure on her throat wasn’t enough to injure her, but the threat was implicit. Everything about Ares was implicit.
The heat between their two bodies was palpable, and there was a moment where even he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to kill her or bed her.
His voice rasped out in the small space between their lips. “It is because there is no difference. Love is just a shadow game— a way of warring with one another without admitting that you do so. We are, and always have been, two sides of the same coin.” He released the pressure on her throat and slid his right hand up behind the base of her neck, his hand curling around a fistful of her hair. Slowly he tilted his head to the left, and leaned in so that his lips brushed the edge of her ear.
And into that moment he whispered, “You forget, my love, all is war.”
Like most things in his life, Ares’ actions had been lightning quick, and powerful. The exchange lasted only moments, and before the Goddess had a chance to react, he had completely released her, and stood back once again— looking down on her with steely eyes, still full of fire.
Ashes | (@Aphrodite)
“What brings you to Olympus? Tired of your humans already?” He hadn’t meant it to sound so sharp, but the words were out before he could stop them.
How long had it been since they had last had any type of romantic interaction? It seemed like years to Aphrodite, and for all she could feel it might have been. She wondered idly if he felt that way to.
“Game?” Ares felt himself grow hot on the inside— the way he sometimes did before one of his rages, the ones he had where flames would cover his body without burning him— and attempted to stifle the sensation as his voice dropped down to just above a whisper. It was soft, menacing… dangerous.
Before he knew what he was doing he’d pulled his sword from his side and held it before the Goddess, not pointed at her, but held parallel so that she could see— it was still covered in human blood. His eyes swept the blade from tip to hilt, watching the lights of Olympus reflect along its surface— relishing the way the blood drank in the shine.
“What I do with them is hardly a game. Mortals are tempestuous creatures Aphrodite, you should know that. It is in their nature to contend with one another. To fight. To kill.” he ran his finger along the length of the blade, tracing a path in the blood. “All I do is bring that nature out of them.”
Slowly Ares raised his finger and gently, almost fondly, touched it to the Goddess’ cheek, leaving a streak of red behind. There was the briefest moment of silence between them, as Ares looked into her eyes… but then it was gone, and his hand dropped back to his side as he sheathed his sword. As he did so his eyes came back up to meet hers, but the tenderness was gone from them now— they were all fire and steel and blood.
“Compared to what you do,” he continued, the words themselves sharp enough to be swords, “talking with them, interacting with them, caring for them… letting them faun all over you.”
He began to turn his back, almost without realizing he was doing so. “Come now, we both know that is the true game.”
and Fury. Son of Zeus & Hera. Lover of Aphrodite. One of the 12 Olympians.
