A/N Hera will probably be somewhat ooc in this story just because I feel she kind of has to be for what I have planned for this story to work. I don't mean to be rude but if you don't like it you don't have to read it. also some of the ideas I used for this chapter and the first one weren't entirely mine. some of the ideas came from a pera one shot I read a while ago And some of the other ideas came from another fanfic on here. I don't remember the names of either of those authors but they get some credit for coming up with the Ideas I just borrowed them and tweaked them. I meant to get this finished yesterday but I didn't get it done in time.

Percy had been angry at Hera for a while during and after his quest with the rest of the seven because she had taken him away from Annabeth without even telling him what she planned to do. Eventually, though he realized that she was just doing what she thought was best in order to save the world from Gaea since Zeus had refused to acknowledge that she was rising and turned a blind eye. Even though he had let go of his anger Percy couldn't help but wonder, if Hera had used someone else for her plan instead of him would anything be different? Would he and Annabeth still be together? He didn't know, and he guessed that he probably never would.

This didn't stop Percy from feeling sympathy and empathizing with the goddess whose love life was in an even worse state than his own. While Percy didn't completely agree with Hera's views on families he still decided to sacrifice the pelt to her.

Returning to the fire that he had been sitting by before the Nemean Lion showed up Percy sat down, tossed the Nemean Lion's pelt into the flames and sacrificed it to Hera without asking for anything in return. Percy wasn't expecting any gifts from Hera, or for her to even acknowledge his gift, so the young demigod was slightly surprised when after the pelt had disappeared he saw a flash of white light not far from where he sat. 

When the light faded away, the goddess he had sacrificed to only moments before stood not far away from him. He quickly stood and bowed saying, "Lady Hera,"

Hera spoke for the first time since she arrived there, she said, "Thank you Perseus, I almost never get sacrifices, the Romans do occasionally sacrifice to my Roman aspect," her form shifted for a moment a goatskin cloak appearing on her shoulders, a staff with a lotus flower on the top appeared in her hand, her features also became sterner. She quickly shifted back and continued speaking, "Once upon a time I received many sacrifices from mortals who hoped that I would bless their marriage so it would be successful. Now though I haven't received a sacrifice in many years. I can't help but wonder, Why? After all, the last time we spoke you weren't exactly pleased with me."

Percy was silent for a moment before he finally spoke choosing his words carefully so he wouldn't anger Hera, "I have come to realize that you were only doing what you thought was best to defeat Gaea and save your family. While I sometimes wonder if things would have turned out differently if Annabeth and I had those eight months together I no longer blame you since I might have done the same thing if I was in your position."

Hera seemed somewhat surprised by Percy's words but before she could say anything Percy continued. He said, "I feel as though I can relate to you to some degree. Nothing I've been through compares to the pain of Annabeth cheating on me. Even after that, I can't even imagine what you have to deal with because of Zeus.  I've been wondering, "Why haven't you left him? How do you deal with the pain?"

It felt good to finally tell someone how he felt since everyone else would just tell him to move on since they couldn't understand how much it hurt. Like most demigods, sometimes he wished he was just a mortal clueless to the fact that the gods exist. It would be a lot easier if he was but unfortunately for Percy he wasn't, he was a demigod son of Poseidon with the fatal flaw of personal loyalty and that flaw made moving on much harder. Percy couldn't help but be nervous though, had he gone too far by prying into Hera's personal life?

Percy watched Hera apprehensively nervous that he had gone too far and angered the goddess that he thought he had just made peace with for the most part.

Hera's expression changed from stoic to what looked like a mixture of pain, anger, and sadness. Percy guessed that the anger wasn't directed at him but at Zeus for his womanizing ways. When Hera spoke, her voice held more emotion than Percy had ever heard in it. She said, "I gave him chance after chance until I finally realized that he wasn't going to change. By the time, I realized the truth it was too late, all the gods that remained were either his illegitimate children or just as bad as he is."

Hera's voice sounded like she was somewhere between yelling in anger and crying her eyes out. She said, "I couldn't simply end it and wait until someone better came along because I am the goddess of marriage, I have to be married, and the shock of ending a marriage that lasted over a thousand years would be too much. I eventually stopped loving him, but there was no point leaving him for someone who wouldn't be any better."

Much to Percy's shock, it seemed that Hera had finally settled on one of the emotions that were previously battling within her because shockingly the normally stoic goddess was straight out crying. Out of instinct, Percy hurried closer to her to try and comfort her. She accepted his comfort letting her tears soak into Percy's shirt.

After she finally stopped crying Percy hurriedly apologized saying, "I'm sorry I didn't mean-

He stopped midsentence as Hera raised her hand to stop him.

She said that he didn't need to apologize. She told him that he was one of her favourite demigod heroes despite the disagreements they'd had in the past. Hera shocked Percy once again when she decided to reward him regardless of the fact that he hadn't asked her for anything when he'd sacrificed the pelt to her. Much to Percy's surprise Hera gave him a tent so he wouldn't have to sleep on the ground, and gave him her partial blessing.

Not long after that Hera left and Percy was still trying to wrap his head around everything that had just happened. At first, he thought he had imagined it all but the fact that his shirt was still slightly damp, and the tent that was sitting on the ground not far away from him was enough evidence to convince him that he hadn't imagined it. Even once he accepted that fact he still couldn't quite understand why Hera had done everything she had.

He hadn't expected her to even come when he sacrificed to her much less thank him, spill some of her personal information, and then reward him. Hera was supposed to hate demigods, but based on what she had told him there must be a few that she liked since she had said that he was one of those few.  Percy had to admit that Hera was beautiful with her brown eyes, regal features, black hair, and womanly figure. She wasn't fat by any means but she wasn't extremely skinny either. Percy stopped that train of thought before it could go any further and mentally chastised himself thinking, knock it off you shouldn't be thinking like that, she's married to Zeus, she's practically your aunt. Despite all that Percy couldn't help but think that by being the womanizer that he is Zeus was seriously missing out. Based on Hera's odd behaviour Percy couldn't help but wonder, was there another side to Hera that most people didn't know about?

Hera knew that she wouldn't normally be so generous to a demigod even if they weren't a child of her husband. The reason why she disliked most demigods so much was because they were usually the result of gods disregarding her domain like it meant nothing. Some gods were worse than others but she couldn't help but get angry when new demigods arrived at the camps, the hunters of Artemis, and even the amazons.

When Zeus and their brothers had taken the oath not to have any more demigod children Hera already suspected that they would most likely break it sooner or later. She had to admit she was kind of surprised that Hades actually kept his oath. Sure, he wasn't as bad as some of the other gods but he still strayed from time to time. Hera had come to realize a while ago that Zeus and Poseidon were unable to remain faithful for long.

Hera didn't quite know why she had told Perseus everything that she had, she so rarely confided in anyone. Sometimes she would speak to Hestia or Demeter, but neither of them could really understand since they weren't in the same situation as her, and obviously, she couldn't say anything to Zeus they would just end up having an argument and she really didn't want to hear any more of his lies.

She supposed she told Perseus everything that she had because he could understand what she was dealing with to some degree. She also knew that despite their quarrels in the past Hera liked Perseus, she supposed it was due to his fatal flaw since he would do practically anything to protect his family and friends, and since she was the goddess of marriage and family she knew she would do the same for anyone she considered part of her family.

She also guessed that his fatal flaw meant that he would remain faithful to anyone he chose to be with. She had to admit that he was rather handsome, he was the spitting image of his father with his black hair and sea green eyes, he was also muscular but not overly so. Hera shoved those thoughts aside, she had just been surprised that he had sacrificed to her since had thought that he didn't really like her, especially now after the giant war was over. She was grateful for his sacrifice, especially since no-one had sacrificed anything to her in quite a few years, and the Nemean Lion's pelt was a rather large sacrifice. She still wondered why Perseus hadn't just kept the pelt for himself since that's what any other demigod would have done but she hadn't asked and he hadn't told her either. 

X!iLt