The throne room was in the center of the most elegant of the palace, separating the six main wings from each other.
Amidst gold and white marble, thousands of different flora in full bloom surrounded a throne made out of red solidified foam. A central fountain with black water through the floor and the wall showed that the room was located exactly above Aphrodite's private garden.
Yet, Aphrodite rested in the small staircase leading to the throne, her shoulders trembling ever so slightly as she sighed with deep exhaustion.
Eros was sure it was taking all of the guard's self control not to throw themselves to their knees. Hence why the guards waiting at the entrance gasped once he walked into his mother's office.
It was known among the servants that Aphrodite liked being revered, that was the reason most of the current guards had volunteered to work, after all.
Her son, on the other side, was famous for mutilating the hands of those who touched Her Majesty.
Eros examined the mental state of the guards for a moment. Aside from anxiety, the desire and lust made him frown.
'Delusional trash,' he thought, telling the guards to leave with a flick of his wrist.
Both Iris and him moved forward only after the giant doors closed behind them.
Like always, her physical appearance had changed from the last time they saw each other.
This time, Aprodithe wore a baby blue silk nightgown that matched her eyes and long hair. A number of moles decorated her face, neck and arms like pearls.
"Hmm?" Aphrodite raised her head, disoriented. The first person she searched for was her secretary, who kneeled in front of the Goddess immediately.
"Your Majesty," she spoke, her black hair touching the ground like a waterfall, "we've
arrived."
"We?"
"Mother," Eros said. The low tone caused Aphrodite to look straight at her son, surprised.
They stared at each other in silence. While Eros tried to remember her exact original
appearance in vain, Aphrodite measured how much her son's power grew.
"Έρως," she called, making Eros gulp with nervousness.
"Mother?"
Slowly, she opened her mouth to speak. However, to the Eros who was experiencing his second-puberty –or whatever it was called– her darkening gaze froze the air around him. Aphrodite definitely knew of something.
Was it the party with Dyonisus in the mortal world yesterday? That was too long ago, he didn't think she would remember.
The missplacement of his arrows? He's pretty sure they're safe... kinda. His hands have been itchy so that couldn't be a good signal, but no news of typhoons had reached his ears.
The human's gala with that beautiful human? Is not possible she found out so soon...
Or did she?
Eros paused. The breathtakingly astonishing human. Someone whose beauty made a god... excited.
Aphrodite wouldn't like that.
He shivered, and his racing heartbeat came to a stop when his mother spoke.
"Give me a hug."
With her voice as sweet as honey calling him, Eros moved and kneeled in front of his mother. He melted in her warm embrace, covered by her silky hair and surrounded by the intoxicating perfume of spring.
All of the things Aphrodite was not.
All of the things that almost made him forget he had not moved on his own free will just now.
Almost.
"My boy. How have you been?"
He suddenly recalled the original appareance of his mother. One she had abandoned ages ago, before he was born. The one he had almost forgotten after only seeing it once. Now, it was too obvious that appareance did belong to his mother. To her only.
He remembered now, that in her original appareance, Aphrodite did not have eyes.
"Iris is a terrible babysitter." He said, trying to smile.
"Awe, did she annoy you that much? Should I fire her?"
"You wouldn't."
"I never will," she accepted.
Her laugh made a harp-like sound that filled the whole heaven. Looking at her, he wondered what his mother knew and why she had looked at him like she did before.
With that know-it-all gaze. With those fake tender eyes.
'She can not know about Psyche,' Eros vowed to himself.
No matter what.
* * * *
A woman turned around once, twice... then another time... and then again. She couldn't believe what her eyes were seeing.
Fortunately, she didn't feel ashamed because she wasn't the only one. Around her, the crowd staggered, tripped and fell disgraciously. All because they couldn't make sense of what they saw.
"Is he a celebrity?" Someone said what they all thought.
Contrary to what the people were thinking of looking at one of the most beautiful humans on earth, Psyche couldn't believe himself.
'Should I stay like this or walk all the way to my office and pretend this never happened?'
Psyche waited at the entrance of the Third Heaven's Group building, wearing a pair of dark blue ripped jeans and a buttoned up shirt with ducks on it. His hair was still messy because of his hurry to get out of Lucius' house
'I mean, doesn't this look too unprofessional?'
'Lucius did offer to buy me a suit for now- Why the hell didn't I say yes when he asked me?'
"Ugghhhhh... Could you be any more irrational?"
'I'm overthinking this, right?'
Standing in front of the luxury layout, among business-people in expensive suits and elegant skirts, whispering to himself while looking suspiciously at the front desk, he looked like a completely sane person... Almost.
He still didn't feel like himself, but his weird behavior should be over by now. Why did he
still feel anxious?
'I was fed up with Adolphe's action so that's why I let go of my self-control for a night. It
won't happen again.'
He thought like this, but there was something even he couldn't let go of.
To a person who hid who they were all their life.
The person who would rather die than be the center of attention.
A person who would never in his wildest dream confess to his childhood crush.
What on Earth happened to make Psyche do all that last night?
"Hey! You! Get out of here! Shoo!"
"Huh? Are you talking to me?"