How This Happened?!

Chapter 20 - Second Chances...?

Clang! Clang!

That was a noise Hephaestus was familiar with.

The sounds of the metal against metal, between the scraps and the fire roaring behind hee, were noises that could make her feel at home. Helped her concentrate and inspired her. Even, sometimes, allowed her to find some mortal that could share the experience with her (when she was a he, that's it)

Which is why, she didn't expect visits at that moment. Nor ever.

Clang! Clang!

What Hephaestus ignored was that, every time her hammer meet the metal she was working on, the door would receive a bang from an unannounced guest. How could he know? He never gets visits!

Clang! Clang!

"For the love of a dove, could someone open up?!?" Hephaestus stopped with the hammer in midair, when she thought she heard right. Frowning, she got up from her chair and walked towards the door of the forgery that, kindly, the people of the town had lent her to use for the project. She peaked through the peephole and saw the last person she thought in finding here.

Aphrodite.

Hephaestus frowned again, thinking quickly all the reasons why Aphrodite would come to see her. None would come to mind. Wanting to finish her project in peace, she decided to get this over with. She opened the door, just enough so her head could peaked.

"Aphrodite? What are you doing here?" she wondered, not understanding. Aphrodite smiled at her, as if he had done that all the time.

"Why, I'm here to see you, silly girl!" he announced. Hephaestus looked around, curious.

"Eh... Are you sure you came for me? You could had mistaken the door..." she reasoned, still not understanding why yet.

"Is there any other Hephaestus in this town...?" he replied, as if he was talking to a five-year-old. This time, Hephaestus frowned visibly at him.

"Could you spare me the childish talk?"

"Would you let me in?"

"I guess..." Hephaestus opened the door fully, allowing Aphrodite to step inside the forgery. Once he was inside, she locked the door and walked back to her work station "I have to work, so could you please be quiet?" she asked, an order hidden in the gently request.

"But, I came to talk to you..." Great, more distractions... "I guess I could wait until you're done... How long would that be?" Hephaestus took a look at her work and made a quick math about the time.

"About... Three, four hours? I'm not sure-"

"Three to four hours?!" Aphrodite repeated, scandalized "Nope, I ain't gonna wait that much!" he decided, taking the hammer away from Hephaestus' hands.

"Wha-?!" she complained, understanding less and less the situation.

"Now, can you please listen carefully to me? To what I'm about to say to you? I've been practicing all morning and in my head and you can't interrupt me while I'm saying it, OK?" Aphrodite looked serious, so Hephaestus just nodded "OK... Here I go" he took a deep breath and began talking "IwanttoapologizeforeverythingthatiswronginourmarriageandthatItakeresponsibilityofallthethingsthatwentbadbecausetechnicallyitweremyfaultandIguessthatItookyouforgranted-"

"Wo, wo wo!" Hephaestus interrupted him, frowning and shaking her head "I didn't understand a word you said in that ramble, so you better do it again if you want to do something..." Aphrodite looked at her as if she was insane. No way that he was going to humiliate himself again to say all that!

"What I said was that I wanted to apologize for everything that was wrong in our marriage and that I take responsibility of all the things that went bad because technically, they were my fault and I guess that I took you for granted in some aspects..." Aphrodite found himself repeating the same speech again, without any feeling of humiliation "I guess that the main point here is that I'm sorry..."

"You're sorry?!" Hephaestus saw this as the perfect opportunity to get out all those confusing feelings that were inside of her about this situation "Sorry does not cut it, Aphrodite" Aphrodite winced at her tone of voice "It doesn't replace the abandonment or the embarrass or anything that you think it could replace, alright??"

"I know it doesn't, Hephy- I mean, Hephaestus" Aphrodite corrected herself quickly about it, earning a raised eyebrow from her "The point is that I want to have a better relationship with you... You know, start from the scratch?"

Hephaestus looked at the almost submissive posture that Aphrodite was showing him. It was as if he was groveling on his knees, metaphorically speaking, to make emends with her. Was that real? Or was simply to calm his guilty conscience? Or was something else...?

"You don't mean it" she finally spoke up, sure of her words "That has to be it... That you are playing, openly this time with me, while you are rolling around with who gods know, while you don't prefer to spend a second with me, is that it?!" Aphrodite was left shocked with those words. Was that why he was here? And nothing else? "Well, you can't play games with me again, Aphrodite!" Suddenly, Aphrodite was being pushed away from the forgery by Hephaestus.

"Wait! Please, Hephaestus, wait!" he begged, turning around to see her. She was frowning again, almost ready to scream at him "I understand you have every right to think and feel that way, I really do..." he confessed, with honesty "But, even though I change my mind later- let me finish!" he stopped a rant that was about to come out of Hephaestus' mouth because of his last words "Could I change my mind tomorrow? Could be a possibility... But, today, my offer is honest and I really want to try it... Can you, at least, give it some thought...?" Aphrodite compromised with her, who frown a little before nodding.

With that reassurance, Aphrodite left willingly, leaving Hephaestus with a big decision to make.

~oOo~

Question of the Day: correct me if I'm wrong, but... have you already bought Father's Day presents? Also, apologizes for the delay, as my electricity has been off since last night...

Question of the Chapter: Should Hephaestus forgive Aphrodite and start over? Yes? No?