Seeing Love Dogs
Part 12
Actually, I had to look down to see the face of the goddess Aphrodite, as she came up only to my shoulder. Who knew a Greek goddess would be so short? When I finally did bend down a bit so I could see her face, I noticed she was smiling at me, a real smile. She didn’t look at all like the calculating love goddess I had pictured, and she didn’t have any fangs or horns, nothing evil looking about her. So why was Heero so afraid of her?
As if to answer my unspoken thoughts, she opened her mouth. "Heero!" And then she leapt on him, wrapping her legs around his waist and snuggling her head against his shoulder, still with that completely disarming smile in place.
Question answered, I glanced over at Pan, wondering how he was taking everything, and found he wasn’t there. I scanned the crowd, looking for the sheen of light off a horn, maybe some of that weird haircut sticking up, nothing, no sign of him.
In the meantime, Heero had managed to finally peel the small goddess off, setting her on the floor. He gave me a look that clearly said he was not happy, and I nodded, not knowing what else to do.
"Aphy! Get your claws off the poor Djinni!"
We all whipped around to eye the girl who strode up to us. I recognized her almost immediately as the other side of love, Venus. She was actually very attractive, though her eyebrows looked somewhat odd, splitting as they did, and reminding me of Dionysus. Briefly, I speculated whether they might be related somehow, then I remembered that the gods ways were definitely not those of man, and that most ancient myths read like soap operas.
"Eek! Venus! I wasn’t doing anything, just saying ‘hi’ I swear!" The shorter goddess inched away from Heero, sliding over beside her other half.
"I was only greeting Heero, it has been," Aphrodite sighed, melodramatically pressing her hand to her heart, "So long!" She sniffled, and clung to Venus, looking up at the blond girl and batting her eyelashes.
I tried not to roll my eyes at the display, leaning over to whisper into Heero’s ear. "She didn’t hurt you or anything, did she?" He smiled slightly, shaking his head ‘no’.
"Heero," Venus was holding out her hand and looking at both of us directly, ignoring her still clinging partner.
Heero smiled, clasping her arm before surprisingly pulling her into a hug. I backed up, startled for a moment. Aphrodite looked to be just as shocked by the display. We met eyes, neither one of us having an answer. Then she smiled at me, waving her fingers in a little ‘hello’ gesture.
"Hi! I’m Aphy," She grinned at me, extending her hand. I took it in mine, surprised to find it felt like a perfectly normal hand. I’d been half expecting a shock or strange feeling from her, but she seemed normal enough, more so then any of the other gods I’d met so far.
"Duo Maxwell," I grinned back at her, letting go of her hand.
"I know who you are."
I blinked at her and she leaned closer, standing on tiptoes to whisper in my ear. "You’re the reason I can’t touch my Heero anymore, I hate true love." Then she leaned back, her smile still in place.
"What?" I asked stupidly, wondering just how crazy she might be, and whether she was dangerous or not.
"True love, it stinks." She said firmly.
Venus, who’d be quietly chatting with Heero, and I wondered if perhaps she’d been saying much the same, turned around and said over her shoulder. "She can’t interfere with true love, it goes against the grain, so to speak." She smiled at me and began talking to Heero once more, leaving me to stare at Aphy.
"She’s absolutely right of course, but I don’t have to like it." Aphrodite leaned close again, and I found myself backing up a step. "Oh please, I can’t hurt you either, I can’t even put a curse on you, hmph." She crossed her arms, looking peeved.
"Then, it’s all ok?" I asked, unable to believe that all that traveling around had been for no reason.
"Yup!" She beamed. "Sucks, huh?"
"Well, if you don’t mind my saying, I don’t think it’s that bad at all." For a moment, I thought I’d gone too far, pushed the goddess to her limit. But then she smiled at me, taking my arm.
"Oh, it’s no problem. Actually I’m happy without Heero, though he was tons of fun to chase." She began tugging me, and I reached around, snagging Heero’s hand. I was just a little bit nervous at the idea of being alone with this girl-goddess.
"Where are we going?" I asked as she started heading for one of the many stages lining the walls.
"Downstairs, our private quarters are down there, and a friend of yours." She deftly weaved through a thicket of people, and we came face to face with a blank wall inbetween two of the stages. Running a fingertip down the wall, she rapped a knuckle against it, and it opened slowly inwards. I raised an eyebrow, glancing behind at all the people who were watching.
"Aren’t you worried they’ll come inspecting this door?"
"They don’t see a thing."
"If you say so, but they certainly look like they’re all noticing." I said, nervously tugging on Heero’s hand as Aphrodite led me through the doorway. Once again, I found myself in a small-stonewalled hallway with a light at the end of it. Only one thing made it slightly different than the entrance of the club, and that was the two blond boys crawling all over Pan.
Pan lay slumped against one of the walls, his eyes closed, an arm loosely slung about one of the blonde’s necks, his other hand occupied with getting a firmer grip on the hip of the blond who was tugging his pants down, or trying to. He looked to be enjoying all the attention thoroughly, his mouth open, slight moans rolling down the hall to sprinkle like pheromones over us.
Everyone froze for a moment, still life of interrupted sex scene, well, that’s what I would have titled it at any rate. Then, the unmoving instant was shattered by the small chuckle that escaped from Heero.
"Looks like they’ve forgiven you Pan!" He boomed out through the laughter that seemed to grow louder the more he looked at the threesome.
"If that’s not forgiven then I don’t know what would be." I muttered under my breath, watching one delicate and pale hand wiggle it’s way down Pan’s pants to settle firmly around the obvious erection there.
I was still finding it difficult to believe that our journey was over, everyone was forgiven, the gods wouldn’t be bothering Heero and I, and Pan was back with his true loves. So why did I have this feeling that it wasn’t over yet?
"Come on, let’s go have a drink." Venus said, leading us towards Pan and his loves, and snagging one of the blonde’s by the waistband of his pants as we walked by. "Eros, come be social instead of sexual."
I chuckled; smirking at Pan as he and the leftover blond boy, who I assumed to be Cupid, gave us startled looks and followed.
The light at the end of this tunnel seemed to have the same affect as the other one had, only this time my mind expanded and opened until I could almost hear the god’s thoughts. Lust was the overriding feeling emanating from them. We stepped through the doorway and into what looked like for all the world to be a harem.
Silks cascaded from the ceiling, piles of pillows and low divans scattered about the wide circular room. Glancing up I noticed the stars were visible through a large pane of glass in the roof, colors refracting the moonlight and draping the room in rainbows of night. Heero tugged me gently over to a giant pile of soft pillows, pulling me down to sit beside him, a possessive arm wrapping around my waist.
Pan sat beside us, the blond boys, who had so far remained silent, settled on either side of him, slim white arms tangling around him as they whispered in his ears. I realized Pan’s legs had gone back to their original shape, once more becoming goat like, perhaps due to being unable to concentrate around the two boy-gods. Not, I noticed, that the boys seemed to mind, one of them taking a particular interest in peering under the waistband of the baggy pants that had replaced the skintight ones. I watched as he smirked and tugged the other blond over, both of them peering down Pan’s pants and giggling to each other.
Venus marched over and tugged them apart, giving them both a severe and admonishing look before settling herself on another pile of pillows and pulling Aphrodite down to rest at her feet. She smiled at me, petting the wheat colored hair of the content goddess. "What would you like to drink Duo, our refreshments are supplied by Dio and Bacchus, so we have whatever you desire."
I returned her smile, realizing she was probably the sanest of the group at the moment. "I’d like a few questions answered I think." I said matter of factly, glancing at Heero before going on. "Is everything truly forgiven? Are we free now? No gods will bother us anymore?" She nodded after each question, smiling at the last.
"We will only *bother* you if you ask it of us, from now on. But there is one more thing you must do, for the record as it were." The others nodded, one of the blonds stood up, dragging the other to his feet, Venus pulling Aphrodite to her feet, until all four gods surrounded Heero and I. "You must prove your love is real. You see, we know it is, but it has come to our attention that you have yet to prove it in an oral sense."
I blinked up at Venus. "Orally? But I’ve loved Heero like that before." My eyebrows drew together in puzzlement.
"Silly." One of the boys said reprovingly, nudging my leg with a bare foot. "Not *that* kind of love. She means you haven’t actually said the words yet."
The other blond boy nodded, bending down slightly and meeting my eyes. "Speaking your love is almost as important as the physical aspects, words have power."
I turned to look at Heero, finding his expression to be serious, his eyes dark. He nodded at me, his hands reaching for mine. "I do love you Duo, I don’t know why, I suppose no one knows the ultimate reason for it. I love you physically, mentally and with every part of me, inside and out." He leaned down, kissing me in a serious way, his mouth gently touching mine before he pulled back, watching me expectantly.
I felt like I was on display suddenly, everyone silent, gazes locked on me as I pulled back a bit, wondering if I could put my feelings on show like that, share how I felt with anyone other than myself. I cleared my throat, my palms beginning to sweat where they remained clasped in Heero’s.
"I... I love you Heero, but I think I do know why. My entire life, I’ve tried to... be myself, I’d always figured, love just wasn’t meant for me, no one kept my interest, no one stirred my thoughts or body. Then I met you, and I felt everything I’d never felt before. I haven’t been able to tell you, because I think I’ve been afraid of what might happen. I didn’t want to share this feeling, if it could end tomorrow. But, I guess that’s the point, right?" I glanced around to find everyone’s rapt attention on me. Venus smiled encouragingly, gesturing to go on.
"Even if I don’t know how long I get to have you, be with you, and love you, it shouldn’t matter, because I’ll have gotten to be with you this long, so every moment longer should be held close." I leaned over, running my fingers along his cheekbone, memorizing the texture of his skin for what seemed the millionth time. "This love is perfect."
"And that," Aphrodite giggled, "Is that."
Venus rolled her eyes, gently pushing the girl down onto the pillows and idly pressing a foot to the middle of her chest to keep her there. "It also calls for a drink, congratulations both of you. As an aspect of love, I can tell you truly, what you have doesn’t come around often."
"Does this mean we can go back to what we were doing now?" whined one of the boys, moving towards Pan with an eager expression.
"Yes," Venus said with exasperation, pushing both of them over towards the still silent goat god. "You two are constantly horny, maybe he can give you some satisfaction, and I’m so tired of your whining." One of the boys gave her a middle finger salute, collapsing half on top of Pan and squirming around until he was cradled in his arms. The other one pounced and managed to also find a seat on Pan’s lap. They both immediately began ignoring everything else in the room, eager little hands sliding under the demi-god’s clothes.
"Now that they’re occupied, what would you like to drink? Perhaps some sensory wine? Dio said it was quite good."
I shook my head vigorously. "Oh no, no thanks, I’ve had enough of that stuff to last me the rest of my life." Venus nodded, removing her foot from where it still kept Aphy pinned to the pillow. "How about a little something I cooked up myself?"
Heero perked up, his fingers releasing mine and sliding about my waist, pulling me until I sat on his lap much like the blondes sat in Pan’s. "Really?"
"Mhm, remember the Escalation Enhancement wine?"
Heero grinned at her. "How could I forget, I was flying for three days after just a few sips."
I frowned at him, sending him a questioning look. "Flying? Surely you don’t mean literally?"
"Literally and figuratively, Escalation Enhancement wine sent your mind on a high that dragged your body with it, the happier you were, the higher you got." Heero responded, pulling closer, nuzzling the side of my neck contentedly.
"Sounds like extreme happiness could be dangerous," I said, wondering what the point to such a thing might be.
"Well, it was somewhat dangerous, so we modified it with Dio and Bacchus, working out a different form. We Gods often get bored, so we like to share interests, and mess with humans." She shrugged eloquently, and held out her hand, a bottle appearing in it. Laying the bottle on the floor space between the mounds of pillows, she proceeded to create delicate wine glasses made of some odd sparkling multicolored glass, setting them in front of herself and nestling one between Aphy’s legs. "This new wine is a escalation of mind, motion, and mood. A sip of it will open you to sensations, half a glass and you’ll start to feel very... *free*, more than that, and you will become intoxicated with the nearest attraction."
I stared at her, wondering if every god I met would be so confusing. "What?"
"Oh just try it, ok?" She poured a bit into each glass, taking special care to spill some on the lap of the goddess collapsed beside herself.
I eyed the glass full of the strangely amorphous and shifting liquid. What could it hurt? I glanced over at Pan, noticing he was completely occupied with handfuls of now naked boy gods. More power to him, I raised my glass, smiling. "To love in all its forms."
"Love." Everyone echoed.
And we drank.
***
To tell anymore would most likely be redundant, let us say that the blond boy gods and Pan were not the only ones to end up naked that evening. It was only after we finally went home, to my house and life in America, that I began writing this account, trying to forever memorize the many events that changed my life so much.
I practice my magic daily, and have yet to introduce my relatives to my husband. We got married in France, on the trip home. Deciding a spiritual binding would suit us. The love gods and goddesses performed the short ceremony, Dionysus and Bacchus in attendance. It was rather a simple service, a piece of our hearts was removed from us and exchanged, obviously something only a goddess of love could do correctly. It signified the complete unity between us. Or at least that’s the way Heero explained it to me later.
My editor suggested I write something about my trip, Wufei Chang never being one to hold out on his personal views, he practically ordered me to write about all of this. What has surprised me is that in writing this account of my vacation and meeting the one person I’ll ever love, I’ve come to understand many things that hadn’t been clear before.
Heero has always loved me, just as I loved him the moment he popped out of his bottle. I’ve asked Heero if there is a god of Fate, but he refuses to answer everytime. I merely tease him though, since I found out something interesting about Heero while we stayed with the love troupe in Amsterdam. Heero isn’t merely a Djinni; he’s also half a god, somewhat akin to Pan.
I married Fate, which explains everything, don’t you think? Except of course, if there’s a god of Fate, then who’s Destiny?
Wufei, my editor as I have mentioned, says that perhaps I am, he thinks that only Fate and Destiny could mix together so well. I told him to stuff it or I’d introduce him to the gods. Funny thing, he actually seemed to like that idea.
|