Overheard
Conversations, Part 12
for ratings and warnings please see Part 1
Joxer gasped and recoiled when
Cupid flashed in. He was still trying to get his heart back in his chest when
Ares touched him on the arm and he got another shock. (Scaring a verrry pregnant man. That’s a good idea.) When he realized
it was his husband, Joxer calmed down and was
silently thankful that he hadn’t had an accident because of it. (Remember,
several pounds of baby were sitting on top of his bladder.)
Strife was just as surprised when Cupid suddenly appeared,
kneeling on the floor at his feet. He heard Joxer’s
gasp and looked over to make sure he was all right. Seeing his uncle, Strife
was momentarily relieved; then he remembered that he had been in the middle of
a crying jag.
His hands automatically went to his face, wiping away the
tears and trying to hide what he had been doing. Strife would have used another
glamour, but he knew Cupid would notice.
“That’s not what happened. Baby, you’ve got it all wrong. I
understand why you feel that way and it’s all my fault. Please let me try to
explain.”
Strife stopped breathing as he listened to his husband talk.
“Oh gods, no, not again.” Strife panicked and tried to get off the couch, but
Cupid wouldn’t let him. He refused to move from his spot on the floor and so
Strife had to continue sitting there.
^^^^^^
Seeing how upset Strife was becoming Ares went over and
closed the door. He waved until he got Aphrodite’s attention, so that the
people at the party would know Joxer and Strife
weren’t alone.
Since Tryst’s last attack on Strife, neither one of them was
left alone. Strife for obvious reasons and Joxer
because Tryst had made his attraction all too evident. Nobody was willing to
risk either of the two men.
It was a good thing Ares came to the door when he did or
they would have had another audience, rivaling the one at Ares and Joxer’s temple a few weeks back. Several of the gods and
goddesses had heard Joxer’s yelp and were running to
see what was wrong.
As a matter of fact, when Ares looked out the door there was
quite a queue of people about to barrel into the room. Ares was touched and
amused to realize that the mortals were leading the way. It was hard to tell
who was in front; Xena, Jett, Jayce,
Hercules or Iolaus.
At Ares’ gesture they all backed off. Not happily or
graciously. Everybody was anxious and wanted to get their hands on Tryst.
^^^^^^
Strife’s nerves were already stretched to the breaking
point. Hormones were running rampant in his already overtaxed body. He simply
couldn’t handle any more stress right now and so he snapped.
He put his hands over his eyes, eyes that were once again
streaming with tears. “No, no!” Strife had his hands mashed tightly against his
head as his fingers dug into his scalp.
Cupid took hold of Strife’s hands and carefully, but firmly
stopped him from abusing his head. Strife refused to look at him and Cupid
refused to let go of Strife’s hands.
Strife yelled out at the middle of the room. “What is goin on heah?! Can’t anybody talk
in private anymore?” He halfway glanced at Cupid and then looked at his lap
before closing his eyes in defeat. “Is everybody watchin
on scryin mirrahs again?”
^^^^^^
It was Ares who answered Strife’s question.
“No, it was just me and Cupid. The Fates decided we needed
to do a little more listening. Nobody else is involved this time.”
Ares looked at his distraught nephew. He then looked at his
sweet husband, whose heart was breaking over Strife’s distress.
^^^^^^
“Baby look at me…please.” When Strife wouldn’t look up,
Cupid let go of one of his hands and gently tilted his chin up. “Please let me
explain. I do love you and I *do* want you.”
Strife closed his eyes in pain, both physical and emotional.
Crying made his ribs hurt even worse. His back too. He couldn’t stand to see
pity coming out of his husband’s eyes. Strife knew that Cupid would now try and
hide the disgust he felt. Strife didn’t want to further ruin the memory of the
love they had shared for just a few short months.
“You were whimpering.”
Strife looked at Cupid in surprise. “What?”
“When we were in the bathroom, getting ready to make love,
you were whimpering. I was hugging you and realized you were moaning and
twisting around in pain. *I was hurting you.* I knew I had to get away from you
as quickly as possible or I *wouldn’t* be able to stop myself. I have never
done anything harder in my life than walking away from you.” Cupid’s eyes were
luminescent with unshed tears. He was silently begging Strife to believe him
and to understand.
“I don’t remembah hurtin.” Strife was so confused. Could this be true. Maybe
Cupid still wanted him. He was afraid to hope. Hope and Strife were not close
friends.
“You were though. I heard you whimpering and opened my eyes.
I tried moving my hands to see if that helped. It didn’t. No matter where I
touched you, you were still in pain.” Cupid risked letting go of Strife’s other
hand, long enough to wipe the tears off of his husband’s face. “I love you so
much. You have *never* disgusted me and you certainly have *never* repulsed
me.”
Strife cried more as he saw the truth in Cupid’s eyes. He
leaned forward and put his forehead on Cupid’s broad shoulder.
Love. He was still loved.
^^^^^^
Joxer let Ares silently pull him
up off of the couch.
He could hear Cupid murmuring in Strife’s ear, explaining
more times of missed loving and the reasons for them.
Joxer realized that his friend was
in good hands. Everything would be all right now.
Ares put an arm around Joxer’s
waist (Or at least in the general area.) and carefully guided him to the door.
Once there Joxer looked back at his friend. He stood
there until he caught Cupid’s eye.
Joxer looked meaningfully from
Strife to Cupid and back again. He stared at Cupid until the God of Love
nodded. He understood. If he ever hurt Strife like this again, he would have to
answer to the God of Peace.
Smiling, Joxer let Ares lead him
back to his party. They left Cupid and Strife alone awhile to heal.
^^^^^^
Strife hissed and jerked in Cupid’s arms.
“What is it baby?”
“Mah back is crampin.”
Strife’s face was tight with pain.
Cupid quickly stood up and moved around to sit beside Strife
on the couch. He ran his hand across Strife’s back until he found the knotted
area. Gently he rubbed it until Strife relaxed.
Strife started to lean back and Cupid moved his arm. Before
Strife could misinterpret this action, Cupid scooped Strife up in his arms and
sat him on his lap.
At first Strife was stiff in his arms.
“Did I hurt you?”
“Nah, I’m all right.” Strife made himself relax. It was
Cupid, not HIM, who was holding him. Being in somebody’s lap was hard. HE only
did that when he wanted to molest Strife.
Finally Strife got used to Cupid holding him and he drooped.
Not relaxed, drooped. He was so fatigued, mentally and physically.
But he was *safe*. Inside his mind the word *safe* echoed
over and over again.
Strife closed his eyes and smiled in peace.
^^^^^^
Strife lightly ran his fingers over Cupid’s arm, tracing the
tattoo that encircled it. He so loved that marking, it was sexy as Tartarus.
“Do you want to go home now?” Cupid’s soft question held the
promise of bed…to sleep. Strife ruefully acknowledged that he couldn’t do much
else right now. The party had taken more out of him than he cared to admit.
“Nah, I don’t wanna miss tha rest ah Joxah’s baby showah.”
“Are you sure you’re up to it?” Cupid kissed Strife’s
temple.
“Um huh.” Actually Strife wasn’t sure of anything at the
moment. All he wanted to do was stay like this the rest of the day. Rousing himself,
Strife sat up and said, “We bettah get in theah before it’s all ovah.”
Cupid helped Strife get up and stood up quickly
himself when Strife swayed. He held onto his husband until the dizziness
passed.
When they got to the door Strife paused again. Cupid checked
to make sure he wasn’t sick or hurting. Strife looked so unsure that Cupid had
to hold him again. (Right, like he needed an excuse.)
“Come on baby, I want to see this bash you arranged.”
^^^^^^
Quite a few heads turned when they came into the room.
Joxer smiled when he saw Strife
looking happy again. He guessed he would let Cupid live.
Apollo looked over and licked his lips mentally at how nice
Strife looked. Then he saw Cupid glaring at him and he gulped. He chanced a
glance at Ares and saw an equally menacing glare and started backing up. He
peeked at Joxer and saw his innocent smile. Apollo
yelped and flashed out in a hurry.
Cupid and Ares looked at Joxer
with respect. Joxer just smiled.
Cupid immediately led Strife over to his chair and sat him
down. Remembering Ace’s warning and how badly Strife’s feet had looked, Cupid
thought up a foot stool and eased Strife’s feet up onto it.
^^^^^^
“All right, I can’t stand it anymore.” Joxer
looked at Ares. “What in Tartarus did you do to
Apollo to get that reaction out of him.”
Joxer smirked. “I went to
Hephaestus and had him make a bracelet for me. The next time Apollo began to grop…uh, bother me I slapped it on him.” Ares didn’t miss Joxer’s almost-admission and Joxer
didn’t miss the growl that accompanied it.
“What did the bracelet do?” Cupid was trying to divert his
father’s attention. The last thing they needed was for him to beat the crap out
of Apollo. Without him the sun wouldn’t come up.
“With the bracelet on Apollo couldn’t get it up. He was
still as horny as ever, he just couldn’t do anything about it.” Ares grinned at
his husband. “I told him he had to wear it for a month. He tried *everything*
to get it to come off. After about a week he came to me, pleading with me to remove
it. I told him he could take it off if he got the key. Then I told him that
Ares had the key. All he had to do was explain why he needed it.” Joxer grinned at the audience that had gathered. “He wore
the bracelet for the whole month. By then I think he was so ready for sex he
was about to explode. It’s funny, he hasn’t bothered me since then.”
Several of the men listening backed up. Ares frowned at them
and they suddenly found other things to do. (Yes, they had also propositioned Joxer.)
^^^^^^
Joxer looked at his painfully thin
friend and decided more subtle direction was needed. He thought about hitting
Cupid over the head with his plate and then decided that maybe that was not
*subtle* enough.
“These are really good. What are they called again?” Joxer held up a bit of food in one hand.
“Nachos. Thay’re from tha future.”
“Did you like them?” At Strife’s nod he continued, “I
thought so. I did see you eating…two of them.” Joxer
looked pointedly again at Cupid who eyed the very small pieces of food thoughtfully.
“I’ll be right back.” Cupid walked over to the food tables.
While he was gone, Strife scanned the room, making sure all
the food trays were full and drinks were plentiful. He had just spotted
something that needed fixing and was about to get up when Athena appeared by
his side.
Athena frowned. Why did Strife look so much worse all of the
sudden? Earlier he had seemed tired, but now he looked positively worn out. She
smiled at the young god and said, “Take a break, you deserve one after all the
hard work you’ve done organizing everything. I’ll keep an eye on things for
you.” With that she walked away before Strife could argue with her.
“Here you go baby.” Strife looked up to see Cupid holding a
plate that was brimming over with food.
“I can’t eat all that.” Strife giggled at all the different
foods.
That giggle warmed Cupid’s heart. He hadn’t realized that it
had been missing for the last several days.
“Well you’re going to eat as much as you can.” Cupid waved
his hand and Strife’s chair elongated into a small couch. He liked the way it
looked and decided to call it a love seat. (Hey, who else do you think invented
it.)
“What did you have for lunch?” Strife looked guilty.
“I kinda forgot in all tha rush.”
“I see…and breakfast.” Strife wiggled this time.
“I wasn’t hungry.”
Cupid sat down beside his husband and carefully pulled him
closer so that Strife’s bad side was being supported by Cupid’s body. Cupid
held out the plate. “Eat.” Strife took the plate and started nibbling on a
sandwich. “We’ll talk later about your eating habits.”
Strife didn’t say anything and tried to eat more.
After a while, Cupid noticed that Strife’s plate was tilting
at an alarming angle. He took it before it could slide out of Strife’s lax
hand. Strife had fallen asleep in the middle of the loud party.
Cupid sat the plate and the glass of juice he had been
holding down on a small table that appeared beside him. Somewhat satisfied with
the amount of food Strife had eaten, he snuggled up with his husband and watched
him sleep.
He wasn’t the only one.
Most everyone had noticed the change in Strife. Not how much
happier he was, although they noticed that too. No, they noticed the abrupt
change for the worse in his appearance.
Strife looked even more fragile than ever. His skin was
paper white (Not that he was ever Mr. Tan.) and looked like it would tear at a
touch. He looked thinner and like a slight breeze would knock him over.
(Actually, at this point it wouldn’t even take that much.)
Protective instincts rose up and so did blood pressure. Gods
and goddesses began to meet together to plan what they were going to do to
Tryst when he was found. Some of the plans were bloodthirsty and gruesome. Then
there were the *really bad* ones. (You don’t want me to tell you about the one
with the starving rats, a metal bowl, some hot coals and lots and lots of
straps.+)
Strife slept on, unaware of the fervor being created because
he dropped the glamour.
+Thanks to Scribe for this suggestion.
Extra note: In my universe there was no Twilight of the
Gods and Strife never murdered Serena, Hercules’ second wife. Bliss is only
about 4 years old now, Eve (Xena’s daughter) is 7.
Yes, I know he should be a lot older, but hey it’s my universe. Also, there
have been no godly children born between Strife and Bliss. I’m not sure if Deimos and Phobos are supposed to
be younger than Strife, but here they’re not.