Unexpected Fighter: Virtual Reality

Chapter 2

She whispers to him while he does so, "That was my first kiss by the way." After checking the stew beef and seeing that it needs another fifteen minutes of cooking, she turns around, right into Zeus' chest and looks up at him questioningly only to find him looking down at her with a longing expression. Before she can ask him what's wrong, he gathers her in his arms and kisses her ferociously while backing her into the nearest counter. They both pull away at the same time as the kitchen door shuts and they realize that their other house mates are in the kitchen looking at them, not shocked but surprised. Zeus looks back at Athena and replies in a low volume so that only she can hear him, "That is a proper first kiss."

All forty eight other Dragon members in the house realize that Athena is back at the same time and all shout, "Queen Dragon, you have returned." To which Athena looks at the Set Five Survivors as if to say 'you did tell them?' to which they shook their heads 'no'. Aphrodite flashes her eyes while looking at Athena, Zeus, and Ares to signal that they would all talk later. Athena sighs and replies to all Dragon member, "Yes indeed." Each member then sets to doing a task helpful to getting dinner ready. One member getting the place mats out, a couple getting the utensils, a few making glasses of ice, a group pulling the table out to its fullest length.

Finally, all place settings are done, all plates are made, and all drinks served. Upon delivering plates, a throne is sat at one end of the table and Athena is made to sit there by the Dragons. Athena replies, "Thank you, but this was not necessary for unimportant ole me." Aphrodite immediately replies, "Yes it is, you are our GOD-sent leader and have done an excellent job at leading us, caring for us, and keeping us safe. This is our way of trying to find some way to start paying you back." "Well, you can start by helping me eat all this food I cooked," Athena replies with a smile, after which everyone smiles back, says the Blessings over the food and they all eat. Each person then proceeds to clean up after themselves, after they are finished eating, and all bid each other a goodnight promptly at 9:00 pm, January 14th.

Athena, after putting the cheesecake into the refrigerator to be ready for the next day, goes to her room to find Aphrodite, Zeus and Ares at her door. Upon seeing her, Aphrodite tells Athena, "We all need to talk." Athena nods her head and says, "Come in." while opening the door to her room. Athena's room is a four-bedroom apartment, with a living room, a kitchen, three bathrooms, and one of the bedrooms had been turned into a dance studio. Upon entering her room, they are standing in the living room, and Athena asks, "Make yourselves comfortable. Would anyone like anything to drink, snack on, and etcetera?" Everyone shakes their heads 'no' as they are still full from the meal they had eaten not even half an hour ago, and takes a seat on the provided couches, love seat, and beanbags. Athena returns from the kitchen with a bottle of water, sits on a bean bag and asks, "Well what are we talking about?" Aphrodite replies, "We each have questions we would like you to answer." Athena nods her head and says, "Well, go on then, what are your questions in particular?" Aphrodite takes a deep breath and says, "The doctor said that you were covered in scars and stitches. Yet we could not see them, even when I washed you I did not see any. Is it true and if so why can we not see them?" Athena looks down at the ground while replying, "Yes it is true and you cannot see them because I put on a long-lasting waterproof body-perfecting full-coverage foundation from my cosmetics company once every week and it lasts until I take off that application and put on another application." Athena then takes a sip of her water while Aphrodite then asks, "Can we see them?"

Upon hearing this, Athena ends up spitting back out the water in her mouth in shock. Athena then replies, "I don't think you really want to." Aphrodite then replies, "Yes we do, or at least I do. Mama Dragon, I do not think they are as bad as you think they are." Athena then looks at Aries, who nods his affirmative that he would like to see her scars, and at Zeus who also nods. "I'm not so sure that you want to see my grossly huge and disgusting body and even if you were I am not sure if I feel comfortable showing them to you. Before I started covering them, when people would see the scars they would look at me with either pity or disgust. Pity is something I do not want because people often then try to figuratively kiss your behind and go out of their way to do what they think you want them to do or say what they think you want them to say. Disgust on the other hand I completely understand because I am visually unappealing and have been for quite some time now, so I am used to it. Striker always looked at me with something in-between disgust and pity, when I asked him why he looked at me thus he replied 'I thought that you would grow up to be prettier and now that you have not, I have no choice but to experiment on such an ugly animal'. Some came from his experiments and others are from my time serving my country on missions because I marked every kill on my body." Ares, Zeus, and Aphrodite are all in a surprised state but also confused as they take in what Athena has said while staring at her back as her head leans on the wall in front of them. They look at each other and then Ares says, "Dragon Queen, we would never disrespect you by being disgusted with you and your battle scars. For they are a testament to your strength to overcome obstacles and arise from them stronger each time. As for your body being disgusting or grossly huge, I do not think that of your body. I think you are beautiful and one day, you will be able to overcome the mental programming regarding your appearance that Striker did to you."