Ares's POV
Hestia pointed to herself as if to say, "Me? Are you sure?"
We all nodded and she began to pout. I must admit, she does a pretty good job at it even though she's not in her regular eight year-old form. Just then, a knock came to the door.
"Now what?" I groaned. Mom gave me a nasty look like, "Stop complaining before I slap you!" kinda look. Then called out, "Who is it?"
"Your mom!" a voice replied back. Poseidon's reaction was no better than Apollo's when his mom came.
"Mommy!" he yelled, jumping up from his seat to open the door. Honestly, all these "men" act like a bunch of ladies, ya know what I'm sayin'? He opened the door to two women.
One of them looked about twenty but seemed to glow with youth. Her chocolate-brown eyes shone with the same curiosity and fascination of the world like those of a five year-old(and trust me, I don't use that to describe a lot of people). Her dark brown hair tumbled barely past her shoulders and her skin was like light mocha. That would be Hebe, my younger sister. This means that I have two siblings to torment now(not including the half-siblings). I looked in her direction and she frowned, me being one of the few people she actually disliked.
Ah, sibling rivalry.
The other woman, the one who had spoken, looked a lot like mom(and if you stupid mortals hadn't figured it out, my mom is Hera). You know, except older(way older) and sterner. Oh, she also has the golden eyes of a titan. That's a bit of a difference.
"Hello, Poseidon!" Rhea smiled, hugging Poseidon. Thankfully old barnacle beard has retained enough dignity to not squeal like a girl because his mommy came to visit. He patted her on the back.
"Hey mom! How're things shakin'?" he asked. I burst out laughing. Everyone just stared at me.
"Hahahaha! Shaking! He's the earthquake god... and he's asking how things are..." I tried to say. They just kept staring at me like I'm crazy.
"Never mind." I mumbled. Rhea went over to Hades next and he(unwillingly) was pulled into a bear hug.
"Hades, I've missed you! Why don't you visit? Is the Underworld really more important than your poor, old mother? Your poor, lonely—" she began. Oh, Tartarus! She's like Demeter now!
"I get that lecture enough from Demeter, thank-you!" Hades said, pushing her of him.
"Demeter gives you 'I'm you poor mom' lectures?" I asked. He sent a seething look in my direction.
"NO! She obviously tells Persephone that you half-wit!" he snapped.
"I wouldn't give him so much credit." Athena mumbled. I sighed. Why does she always have to be so negative?
"Well, why are you complaining?" I ask the lord of the dead. "It's not like she's saying it to you-"
"I have to listen to it too!" he shouted. This might have continued but Rhea walked over to Demeter.
"Hey sweetie! Things going good?" Rhea asked, hugging Demeter. Demeter shrugged.
"Some things—" then she sent a glare at Hades. "—other things, not so much."
"Mother!" Persephone whined. Hebe had walked over to the other side of the table. Mom and her kissed each other on both cheeks and hugged each other.
"Where are you these days?" Mom asked. Meh, she was always mom's favorite. Her and Eileithyia. But it's no loss for me. She's not exactly my favorite parent.
"I've been out and about." Little sis replied, shrugging her shoulders. She made a chair appear and she sat next mom. Lady Rhea(I'll just go ahead and call her grandma) then went over to dad.
"Zeus!" she exclaimed, about to hug him when she stopped. Dad frowned.
"What's wrong?" he asked. Grandma made a tsk tsk sound.
"You've let yourself go." she said disapprovingly. Uncle P and H began to snicker while dad looked absolutely mortified.
"What?! No I haven't!" he protested.
"Yes you have." Mom grumbled. Then she and grandma embraced. "Mom! It's so good to see you!"
"You too!" Grandma replied. Then they went on to some conversation about dumb things like family and whatnot. We're never going to finish this game. And I never even got to do my dare!
After what seemed like forever, they stopped talking and grandma went to sit next to sit next to, guess who, me. Finally! Let's get this show on the road!
Leto's POV
After Rhea had finished talking to Ms. Peacock about family, she went to sit down next to Ares who looked less than thrilled to be next to her.
"Who's turn is it?" she asked.
"It's my turn." Hestia answered. Lady Rhea turned her head away and didn't respond, acting like Hestia hadn't spoken.
"Rude." I thought.
After a few seconds, seeing that Rhea wasn't going to respond, Hestia said, "Lady Rhea... truth or dare?"
At first, I wasn't sure if she was going to ignore her daughter again or not when she said, "Dare."
"Ask her to jump in a pit of poisonous snakes!" I thought. What? If my mom gave me the cold-shoulder for no good reason, I would like some revenge.
My daughter rolled her eyes at me and mentally told me, "I'll keep that in mind if you annoy me Mother."
"Snakes aren't that bad," I replied. "It's fun to toss them into the air and slice them in half. Well... its fun until the guts fall on top of you. Then it's gross but I've been covered with worse."
My daughter wrinkled her nose. "Mom, that's disgusting! How are you a vegetarian?"
"How are you a goddess of the Hunt if you find sliced snakes disgusting?" I mentally retorted.
"Hey guys," a new voice interjected. Hermes was looking at us. "Let's not let George and Martha hear this, okay?"
"I dare you to... cook us dinner." Hestia told Rhea. Cook dinner? Sigh, I'm going to have to teach that girl how to dare.
"Cook dinner?! That's the lamest dare ever!" Ares screeched. Hestia winced and rubbed her ear.
"Aren't you hungry?" she asked him. Well, on second thought...
"I am! Let's eat!" my son said, making a fork and knife appear in either hand and a napkin around his neck.
"I need to make dinner first." Rhea told him. My son pouted.
"Don't pout now son. Remember what I said about that?" I asked him.
"You said lip bugs would crawl in under the flesh there and lay their eggs inside my body. After they hatch, they spread out to over parts of my body, slowly devouring it in a painful way." he replied, smiling at his wonderful memory. Is that really how far I've taken that tale? Everybody but my daughter gave me an odd look.
"What?" I asked them.
"Most people tend to tell their kids that their lips will fall off. Why such the... elaborate story?" Athena asked.
"It's not a story." I denied. "I've seen dozens of men devoured that way."
"For... pouting their lips?" Hestia asked carefully.
"...Yes." I said. Well, I can't help it that I like telling my kids tall-tales. My son tells haikus, Demeter has an unhealthy obsession over cereal and I like telling tall-tales.
"Mom, why don't you tell father about how you defeated Kronos single-handedly?" my daughter suggested, a smirk on her lips. To my surprise, Zeus laughed.
"Yes, Leto! Why don't you tell us?" he asked, grinning. We both knew that I hadn't defeated Kronos.
Hades grinned too and said, "Oh yes. This I would like to hear."
"Well... it was the Final Battle," I began, holding up my hands in a dramatic gesture.
"Ooh, not just any battle! It's the final." Demeter muttered. Lady Rhea began walking around the table and placing plates in front of us.
"I had just finished fighting 50,000 monsters!" I continued as if I hadn't been interrupted.
"It was 25,000 the last time you told the story, mom." Artemis said, frowning.
"And 10,000 before that!" Apollo added. "Why did you change it?"
"I did not!" I snapped. "Anyways... I just defeated 75,000—"
"You just changed it again!" Artemis screeched. I frowned.
"Did I?" I muttered.
"Yes, it was just 50,000!" she argued.
"What? 50,000? Who told you that nonsense? It was most certainly 75,000." I protested. My fellow shrew began to bang her head against the table.
"Is it over yet?" she asked as she continued to bang her head.
"Careful, don't want you to damage the few brain cells you have left." I told her, slightly offended that she didn't like the story. She glared at me, ready to get into a fight.
"Foods ready!" Rhea announced, snapping her fingers and making the food appear on our plates. Ah, bone appa—
I froze. Picking up my fork, I poked at the steak on my plate. My stomach cringed.
"Anyone have a salad?" I asked. At that moment, Hera got her revenge.
I was unable to stop the steak that she threw at my face.
Let's just say I wasn't happy.