No More Olympus

Chapter 6

Athena knocked on the door to Ares's gym for what felt like the sixth time in the last two minutes.
She was considering the consequences of kicking down the door and storming her way in, knowing her brother that would've ended in another one of the brawls they had back on Olympus.
She quickly decided that she wasn't near that point yet.
It was currently six o'clock in the morning. Athena had silently packed a bag, changed into a pair of 'mom jeans' and a gray T-shirt underneath a blue handwoven ruana poncho, and snuck out of the house before anyone in her family could wake up and start asking inconvenient questions. As husbands and five-year-olds tended to do.
Athena and Ares had made plans to leave town at the crack of dawn. Ares claimed that Aphrodite was currently hidden out somewhere in Los Angeles. This made sense to Athena when she considered the city's famous nightlife and party culture, a lifestyle that made sense for the goddess of love and the biggest party girl on Olympus.
"Ares!" Athena shouted, "Open the damn door! We're burning daylight."
The front door then swung open, revealing a very tired-looking Ares, wearing the exact same clothes he had been wearing the other night, including the faint stains of blood that were mostly masked by his red t-shirt.
"Would you keep it down?" Ares requested, "Some of us did not sleep well last night."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Athena mocked, "Did little baby Ares have a nightmare?"
Ares stuck his head out into the morning sun, immediately recoiling when the light hit his eye. He then slipped on a pair of sunglasses and stepped out his front door, locking it behind him.
"Are you hungover?" Athena asked, immediately recognizing the symptoms.
"Are you wearing a beach blanket?" Ares responded, leading the way to his garage beside his building.
Athena had taken notice that while she had a respectably sized bag filled with clothes and hygiene products, Ares had no luggage to speak of at all. His pockets didn't even seem particularly full.
"Why are you hungover?" Athena asked, "How are you still hungover? Haven't your powers sobered you up yet?"
Ares agreed, "Dionysus gave me a lifetime supply of the 'special stuff' back when we reunited during the prohibition era."
"Oh, I miss the special stuff," Athena sighed, thinking back to the exceptional wine their brother Dionysus would brew up for the gods. That 'special stuff' as it was called, was one of the only ways a god could get drunk on a normal amount of alcohol rather than the buckets that would be required of mortal brews. It also happened to be delicious.
"Hey, you don't happen to have any left do you?" She asked hopefully.
"I finished it last night," Ares said.
Athena sighed in disappointment.
Ares then pushed a button on his key chain, and the garage door roared to life, slowly creaking open to reveal his vehicle.
His truck was massive, with tires that were at least as tall as her legs and a body that was about the size of a chimera by Athena's estimate. The truck was spartan red, a shade of the colour that she hadn't seen in centuries but that Ares must have gone to hell and back to get right, and on the front of the hood was an ornament in the shape of a pair of silver horses, the last thing Athena noticed was the license plate that read...
"Chariot," Athena read aloud,
"Yeah, that is its name," Ares grinned proudly, "Seemed appropriate considering its driver."
"I'll drive," Athena insisted, holding out her hand for the keys, "No way you're getting behind the wheel like that."
"There is no way you are driving my truck," Ares denied, clutching the keys tightly in his hand.
"It's a truck," Athena rolled her eyes, "Ares, I can handle a truck."
"My truck, my rules," Ares informed her.
Athena stared him in the eye.
"Whatever," she spat, accepting defeat.
"Ah-ha!" Ares cheered in victory before recoiling at the noise.
"So why exactly did you get so drunk last night?" Athena asked, throwing her bag into the truck's backseat through the passenger door, "Did you need a little liquid courage?"
"Please," Ares rolled his eyes as he entered the driver's side door, "I am the god of courage. Why would I need to remove my inhibitions with alcohol?"
"Oh, I don't know," Athena mocked, climbing into the truck next to him, "Maybe about reuniting with your one true love after all these years."
"I am not nor was I ever in love with Aphrodite," Ares denied, "I am- was, simply aroused by her, and vice versa. Our relationship was based entirely on sexual intercourse."
"Oh lord," Athena shuddered.
"Never before has a more foolish notion entered your head, sister," Ares said, bringing the engine of the truck to life.
Athena quickly recognized when her brother was overcompensating.
"Okay," she smiled, "Then how is it that of all of us out there, she is the only one you kept tabs on?"
Ares paused for a moment.
"Be silent," he demanded as they drove out of the garage.