He hated what he felt. What he felt toward some… mortal girl… His original plan, like it always is with earthly women, was to procure for himself another heir.

But what he had not anticipated, was that he would come to find himself falling in love. At the cery moment he realized, he had been sitting in bed next to a sleeping Here, staring at the wall, wondering just what in his name was wrong. Then, it finally dawned on him.

He pleaded with Aphrodite, of course, to take the foolish conquest of love from his addled mind. But she refused. She knew her father had long been unhappy with the queen of the gods.

”Love sometimes fades…”

His daughter told him.

”But you mustn’t abandon love forever. It will find you again.”

Now he knew what she meant. Here she was, lying next to him in all her glorious beauty, and the King of the Gods was only able to revere his love.

“I love you.”

He blurted without thinking. He, in this blissful moment of peace, couldn’t stop himself. The words had been bubbling in his throat, his body aching with every moment he didn’t tell her.