Godsforsaken

Chapter 39: Home Sweet Home

“Please don't take this to mean that I don't appreciate your company, but why did you tag along?” I asked Melinoe as we stood in front of Anna's our villa.

“I believe you said something quite similar when we went to the Elysian Fields,” the demigoddess said in an airy tone of voice. “I'm beginning to think you don't really want me around after all.”

“It's more that I don't get why you're coming along,” I said. “You could die if you accompany us to Olympus.”

She looked at me then, and for the first time since I'd met Melinoe she looked annoyed with me. “You don't get why I'm coming along? Felix, the world is under threat from the Outsiders and it's gotten bad enough that they can take an entire pantheon hostage. If anything I'm horrified that there were a few so-called Heroes on the Elysian Fields who listened to everything you all had to say and still decided not to help.”

She had a point. Of course some of them preferred to stay in the cozy afterlife they'd earned but if the Outsiders managed to destroy the world then the afterlives would shortly follow. But even so: “I understand that. But why did you tag along with us? You could have simply waited with the Heroes and entered Olympus once we'd cleared the way.”

Instantly pink color touched her cheeks and she subconsciously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she averted her gaze. But before I could comment on the odd reaction Alisha explained:

“She wanted Yume to teach her about you-know-what. You know, to become stronger.”

I raised an eyebrow, finally understanding Melinoe's hedging. “What happened to the woman who bragged about having been trained by the goddess of magic?”

Her blush grew a little darker and she shot a bit of a glare at me before admitting: “As it turns out there's still a lot for me to learn and your girlfriends kindly offered to teach me if I give them some pointers on the magic I'm using.”

“I see,” I said. “That makes more sense. Then...” I caught Anna's gaze and then very deliberately said: “Welcome to our humble abode.”

Anna gave me a soft smile, happy that I had called it our home rather than hers. And, in truth, it felt like it now. During our absence I had started missing the place. It was spacious, pretty and in a very convenient location, near the main thoroughfare and yet fairly close to the royal palace. Getting used to all the space had taken some time, more than it should have, really, but after weeks and weeks away it felt good being back... home.

When we stepped inside Alisha and Yume immediately rushed to the backyard, presumably to check on our mystic fruit trees, while Anna hurried into her atelier, presumably to deposit all of the rare plants our journey had yielded into her ice boxes. Selene, meanwhile, went up to her room, I assumed to unpack and to sort what she would send to her parents.

“Make yourself at home,” I told Melinoe. “There are a couple spare rooms left so you won't have to share a room with anyone.”

In response Melinoe muttered something that sounded suspiciously like: “And what if I want to share a room with someone?” But I might have misheard her.

I waited for a moment in case she wanted to repeat that but when she didn't I decided to go check up on Alisha and Yume outside.

"Did everything survive?“ I asked the girls as I went out back.

"Everything survived,“ Yume confirmed. "More than that...“ She trailed off and gestured at the mystic fruit trees. At first I didn't understand what it was she wanted to show me but then I realized what I was looking at.

When we had left for the underworld one of the plants had only been a tiny little sprout while another had still only been a seed in the ground. Now though, that tiny little sprout was the height of my ankle and the seed in the ground had begun to sprout. Even more, the other three trees had all grown a good bit and the dragon berry tree had shot up about four feet while we'd been gone. There were even a few tiny blue dragon berries dangling off it, though I suspected they would be unripe and sour.

"Were we gone that long?“ I asked, reverence in my voice.

"I believe it had more to do with Athena feeding it her mana.“

"Well, sounds like she wasn't useless for once,“ I muttered.

Yume tittered, then covered her mouth in embarrassment. "So this is just how it's going to be, isn't it? I had hoped things between you would turn more tender after you both opened your eyes to each other.“

"You assume this isn't exactly what Athena likes,“ Alisha said with a grin.

"So it's like that?“ Yume asked, amusement in her voice. "I admit, I am a little jealous of you two then. I've never teased a goddess before.“ She paused, then added: "Well, at least not a goddess of her status.“

Well if that wasn't one of the most intriguing things I'd ever heard. I was dying to ask about it but I knew Yume well enough by then to know that if she'd wanted to say more, she would have.

"Don't worry, I'll work on her,“ Alisha said. "She'll be playing with everyone before long.“

"You seem pretty confident,“ I said.

"I know her type,“ Alisha said airily.

"You mean she's the same type as you?“ Yume asked.

"Exactly.“

"I feel like I should be checking up on her,“ I said.

"Yes, you should, lover,“ Yume said.

I turned around to do just that when I noticed Melinoe coming out of the house and onto the back porch. As she exited the house she desperately squeezed her eyes shut and let out a tiny little whimper. I hadn't really noticed it when we'd come here through the Homeward miracle but I supposed it made sense. The underworld wasn't pitch black but it was much darker than the surface and spending her whole life down there must have made her quite sensitive to the bright sunlight of the surface world.

She stumbled forward with her eyes squeezed shut and I hurried over to stop her before she could run into the table we'd set up on the patio.

“Careful there,” I said, interposing myself between her and the table and wrapping my arm around her waist to stop her.

She opened her eyes and looked up at me, then began blushing. For a moment I wondered why she would be blushing when I had just been helping her but then I noticed that we were practically nose to nose. I had never really noticed it before but Melinoe, despite being a demigoddess, was a very willowy person, about as tall as Alisha though and just the tiniest bit curvier. Her eyes were a shade of green so deep and piercing it felt unfathomable and her lips parted just the littlest bit in shock at our proximity.

“Sorry,” I said as I let go of her, then tried to take a respectful step back, only to run into the table I'd just saved her from. “Oof.”

Melinoe's look of embarrassment instantly dissolved into a soft smile and I swore I heard a “Smooth” from Alisha.

I stepped away from the table and rubbed my ass where I'd smacked into it. Melinoe gave me a quick once-over, then walked past me to our... well at this point it would be appropriate to start calling it a grove, wouldn't it?

“So these are the mystic fruit trees you two told me so much about?”

“Indeed,” Yume said, then pointed at the dragon berry tree. “These are the ones Alisha made you try.”

“From your stories it sounded like the plant was a lot smaller,” Melinoe said.

“It was,” Alisha said. “It grew a lot while we were gone. If it keeps growing like this we'll be able to harvest our own crop of dragon berries when we get back from Olympus.”

“When, not if?” Melinoe asked, mirth in her voice.

In response Alisha skipped over to us and then flicked Melinoe on the nose. “Don't be such a sour-puss.”

The demigoddess blinked and so did I. When had Alisha become so irreverent towards deities? Was I being a bad influence on her? Or was this unique to Melinoe? Did I need to get jealous of the demigoddess? I shook myself out of it. The look of hunger Alisha was giving me even now was unmistakable. Was Alisha perhaps expecting me to add Melinoe to our little group? I mean, the demigoddess was hot and fun to be around but I really didn't need another girlfriend. And so, instead of dwelling on that, I left the three of them in the garden and went to check up on Athena.

**

Or rather, I meant to go check up on Athena. When I reached the dining room I heard a shrill shriek coming out of Anna's workshop. My body was moving before my mind had a chance to catch up and I only just stopped myself from yanking open the door to her workshop. If she'd been handling any noxious fumes then charging in there would be at least as bad for me as it would for her. Possibly more so, if working with medicinal herbs built some sort of immunity.

So before rushing into her workshop like an idiot I pulled out the piece of blessed cloth I'd tailored back during our first adventure with Selene to block out the airborne drug that Dark Lord had been using and put it on. Then I opened the door.

I'd expected to be hit in the face with a cloud of noxious vapors, had expected to see Anna lying on the ground in front of a bubbling beaker, but what I hadn't expected was to find her sitting at her desk, happily scribbling away at her notebooks while occasionally poking a piece of moss.

“Everything alright?” I asked and she jumped a little before turning around to look at me.

The moment she saw me, my face hidden under a wrap of blessed cloth, she raised a carefully sculpted eyebrow. “What's going on?”

“That's my line,” I said, pulling the cloth wrap off my face and putting it back in my bag of holding. “I heard you screaming and thought something bad had happened.”

She blushed a little. “Oops. No, nothing happened. Sorry for scaring you. I just found some amazing properties to some of these ingredients.”

“Like?” I asked, knowing full well what was about to happen.

Anna could go on and on about her work as an herbalist but she just had far too few people to talk to about it. She was always terrified of annoying people with it so she rarely spoke up about it unless prompted. I knew I should be checking up on Athena but my other girls were at least as important as the annoying goddess and so I sat with Anna as she told me about all the exciting stuff she'd found out.

And in truth, it was quite interesting. From potions that would provide temporary boosts to strength and speed over ointments that could reattach limbs to salves that would grant better vision in the dark, Anna had found a lot of useful stuff, if only we gave her enough time to prepare everything. Of course, that was a sobering thought. Every day we delayed was one more day those cultists would be able to do whatever to the Olympians and to whoever else was still stuck up there and so we needed to prepare quickly. But even so Anna was certain she would be able to cook us up something good without overworking herself beforehand.

I helped her with the potions for a while, until all that was left to do was to watch over the potions as they simmered, and headed back out.

When I exited Anna's laboratory I found myself faced with an unusual tableau. Selene and Melinoe were sitting at the kitchen table, Selene's deck of cards spread out between them and Melinoe looking horribly flustered.

Seeing Selene playing cards by herself often gave the impression that she was terrible at card games, given that she so often looked as though she was losing against herself, but that belied the truth: The reason Selene often played card games alone was because she could trounce every single one of us if we were stupid enough to play against her. My supernatural luck balanced her exceptional poker face out somewhat but none of the others could keep up with her.

And Melinoe was currently finding that out for herself.

I walked around the table slowly, giving Selene a wry little smile when she noticed me, and checked out their hands. Melinoe was struggling but she would be able to turn it all around with just one card. If she could draw a black ace she would win the round. I wondered if...

She was about to draw another card but I leaned over her and placed my hand atop hers. She startled momentarily and looked up at me, looking even more flustered than before. I met her gaze for a moment, then we drew the card together.

She let out a startled little squeak when she saw the ace of clubs we'd drawn together.

“Really?” Selene asked me, her tone wavering between amused and annoyed.

“What can I say?” I asked with a shrug. “She needed a bit of luck and I'm a lucky bastard.”

Melinoe muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “You sure are,” but I wasn't really paying attention. She was looking a little more confident now, and that's what mattered.

Over all I thought Melinoe was quite an interesting person, at once supremely confident and so very easily flustered. It made me want to mess with her a little but since all of my women seemed to be having the same idea I thought it best to assist her every once in a while, just so it wouldn't feel like we were all ganging up on her. It really wasn't like me to be all considerate like this but somehow my girls messing with her just made me want to be nice to her.

Either way, after evening the odds between the two of them I decided to stop stalling and do what I'd set out to do. I made my way up to the room Athena was staying at, also known as my room. And when I tried to open the door I found it locked from the inside.

“Go away,” she said, her voice sounding oddly muffled, even more so than could be explained by the closed door.

“Open the door.”

“I said go away,” she said, her voice sounding really upset at this point.

“This is my room, Athena. Stop acting like a child.”

“Who are you calling a child, you impudent mortal?” she whined.

I rolled my eyes. “If you're going to act like a child, I'm going to treat you like a child. Now open that door, Tina, or so help me, I'm going to bend you over my knee and spa—“

The door flew open and revealed Athena glaring at me, her face all red and puffy. “Not so loud you asshole!”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes again and simply walked into the room, shoving her backwards as I went. When I was all the way inside I closed the door behind me and just looked at Athena.

She had drawn the blinds, making the room as dark as it could get, and she'd apparently been huddled up on the bed, crying. Her toga had dark spots on it and she looked terribly upset.

“Now what?” she asked, hurt in her voice, and it took me a moment to realize what had her so upset.

She was upset at Melinoe being here. She didn't dislike Melinoe but she was terrified of our relationship becoming common knowledge and she didn't yet know that Melinoe had already figured it out. And so she probably thought that with Melinoe here all that frustration we'd primed in her would go unfulfilled. It was a very childish thing to be this upset over but given that this was the first time she'd truly been free to indulge this side of herself it made sense why she would be.

So instead of messing with her some more I grabbed her by the wrist like a naughty child and sat down on the bed, then pulled her into me, in between my legs. I wrapped my arms around her and even though she made some upset noises when I did she nevertheless melted into me soon enough.

“Asshole,” she muttered.

I didn't say anything.

“Jerk. Insensitive dick.”

I let her insult me a while longer before I said: “Feel better?”

“No,” she said but she was clearly less upset than before.

“You were looking forward to it that much?” I asked. The words were teasing but the tone I used was gentle, soothing.

“Yes,” she admitted and even though she had her back to me I could feel the heat radiating off her cheeks.

“You know we're still going to have fun later, right?” I asked.

In response she started struggling against me, trying to break free. If she'd actually flexed her divine strength she would have been able to but she didn't and so I was able to hold her still.

“Is the idea of the other gods finding out about this really so revolting?” I asked.

She went still. “It's not about being revolting.”

I stayed silent, waiting for her to continue.

“I've been making fun of them for indulging their desires for so long, they would all make fun of me if they learned that I'm just as shameless as they are,” she said.

“They wouldn't,” I said perfectly clearly.

“How would you know?” she hissed.

I took a deep breath. “Because Melinoe already knows.”

She started struggling again, harder this time. Only when she realized that I wouldn't let go did she stop and hiss: “You asshole. You told her, didn't you?”

“I didn't,” I said. “She figured it out nearly instantly. She confronted me about it on the boat we took to Hades' realm. I denied it, knowing you didn't want people to know, and she called me a moron for thinking it wasn't completely obvious.”

“So she knows...” Athena muttered, with resignation in her voice. Then a moment later her tone shifted to be almost excited. “She knows!”

“And she didn't make fun of you for it,” I said. “So there's nothing we have to hide from her.”

At that her breathing began to quicken. Now that she wasn't mortified and frustrated she finally realized what kind of position we were in.

“So, did you take care of yourself?” I asked, with a teasing note in my voice.

“Of course not,” she whined. “And you asshole went out of your way to make them all scream in the room right next to mine.”

“I did,” I said. What I didn't tell her was that I'd told all of them to play it up a little for her benefit. Our escapades last night had actually been quite tame compared to what I had no doubt Alisha had planned for tonight. “You're all hot and bothered for me now, aren't you?”

She grumbled and I reached down to place a hand over her crotch, eliciting a shuddering gasp from her. It was sweltering hot and absolutely soaked.

“I bet I could wring a climax out of your needy little cunt right now,” I said.

“Please,” she whined, leaning her head back and resting it on my shoulder.

I took the opportunity to press my lips to her throat, kissing the soft skin of her neck. “You want this so bad, don't you?”

“I do...” she whimpered and tried to roll her hips but the position was terrible for it.

I rubbed over her pussy, just once, feeling her coming dangerously close to an orgasm. I had her so riled up I could probably get her to come by pulling on her nipples.

And so instead of doing that I started tickling her sides, causing her to squirm and giggle.

“Come downstairs with me,” I said. “Help Alisha and me prepare dinner and then we'll have some fun.”

“You are such a fucking bastard, Tailor,” she growled at me.

“I know,” I said. “Now kiss me.”

And she did. She spun around, threw her arms around me and kissed me desperately. And then the little sneak tried to grind her crotch into my thigh and I pulled away before she could get herself off on me.

Gods above, if she was this needy I had to get her a chastity belt or something.