"Here, my love," Hephaestus calls, kneeling before you like you were his own deity to worship while he presented a gift to you.

Placed upon his cutup and worn hands through eons of creating tools such as thunderbolts for Zeus, arrows for Apollo and Artemis, and armor for Achilles and Heracles, now laid a more simple creation.

A carved metal animal, one that you had seen while walking amongst the mortal realm together, that you deemed to be adorable. Now, as your dutiful lover who wanted nothing more than to show his appreciation to the only one who truly loved him, he created an exact replica of the animals by hand through his metal creations.

"I have made this for you," he explains, gently opening your hand and carefully placing the figure onto your palm. Though rough from the materials he worked with, his touch was gentle when it came to you. He could not withstand harming you.

It was hard to understand why his own mother had thrown him from Olympus, a fact that made him slightly bitter each time the other Gods who were not treated so poorly asked for his assistance or demanded his work, yet how could his heart not soften when you were beside him like this?