act one , chapter one
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➖️ APHRODITE ➖️
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              IT WAS COLD when she opened her eyes, shirt damp from either sweat or water. Aphrodite sat upright, scanning her surroundings. She was in the haven of Barry's little flat, it was messy but clean enough for her standards. The blonde looked around, noticing that the boy mentioned wasn't anywhere to be seen until she landed on a particular face, one she wasn't really keen on seeing so bright and early in the morning.

"Diana." She mumbled, forcing a smile at her sister, but in all fairness, Diana wasn't really her sister, seeing as that Zeus wasn't her father. Aphrodite liked calling her sister, after all, Diana was the closest thing she had to a home she barely remembered. "Why are you here so early?"

"A morning sister, how did you sleep sister, oh I'm fine isn't too much to ask, you know?"

Aphrodite rolled her eyes, swinging her legs over the bed and her feet into her fuzzy unicorn slippers. "Morning sister, how did you sleep?"

"Wonderful!" Diana smiled, but from her tone, Aphrodite could tell she was being sarcastic. "Trust me, it was wonderful, until I got a call from Barry, telling me that your nightmares have begun again!"

The young goddess sighed. Of course, Barry would do such a thing. Now, she won't blame him, she's never told him about the nightmares or what she went through all those years ago. The blonde has been trying to heal, naturally but it was hard. "Of course he did."

"Det, you know Barry loves you and he cares a lot ab—"

"You think I don't know?!" Aphrodite rarely snapped, but sometimes, there's so much a goddess can take before falling apart. For Aphrodite, that took watching the love of her life, the father of her child, being tortured, sent to hell and have the same thing happen to her. When Aphrodite caught the look on Diana's face, she looked away, throat dry. "I'm sorry, I didn't—"

"It's fine." Diana nodded. "You may not be my sister by blood, but I still care about you."

Aphrodite ran her tongue over the words in her mouth, tasting the bitterness of each and every one of them and all she did was nod, shrugging her robe on and she shuffled past her sister to get to the kitchen, where she found Barry making breakfast, or rather trying to. It brought a little smile to her face when she saw him put some type of substance in his mouth, only to spit it out immediately, shaking his head.

"Note to self, that is rancid." He mumbled to himself, throwing the bowl and the substance into the sink and he sighed. "So much for romantic cheering up breakfast."

"So, you called my sister... again."

Barry jumped, looking behind him and he only relaxed when he noticed it was Aphrodite. "I'm sorry?" Aphrodite raised a golden brow. "Look, I know you said it was nothing but I panicked."

"I know Barry, but we spoke about this, you can't keep calling my sister whenever I have a bad dream. Humans have bad dreams too, don't they?"

"Yes, but you're not human and you don't just get bad dreams, you have nightmares, almost every night and I have to just sit and relax knowing that you're suffering while I vowed to keep you safe?" Barry shook his head. "Look, I'm running late for work. Please tell your sister, at least, maybe you don't trust me enough—"

"I trust you Barry, you know I do and I love you but you don't understand." Aphrodite argued. Well it was true after the events that took place in her life, she met amazing people like Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Alfred, Arthur Curry and Victor Stone, she fell heads over heel for clumsy, silly Barry. He felt like home. The black haired man said nothing but grab his jacket, place a kiss on the side of her head and he sped out the apartment.

"Bruce invited us to a party tonight."

Aphrodite jumped. "Gods Di! I forgot you were here! And no, I don't fancy dealing with a drunk super mermaid telling sharks to attack us."

Diana threw her head back, laughing and Aphrodite giggled a little. "That was hilarious."

"It was." The blonde sighed, smiling. "It wouldn't hurt, I guess and Barry is out of town tonight, something about his father's case, I don't think I'd love to spend the night alone in this apartment."

"I'll pick you up at eight."

"Make it six." She averted her eyes from her sister's. Aphrodite told her sister about the nightmares, obviously, but she never told Diana what their father did to her or to Hephaestus. Diana asked once why she sported long gashes on her arms and legs and why she never uses her powers, she never told her. "Please."

Diana pursed her lips but never asked why, instead she nodded, smiled and reminded her to be ready at six. She bid her sister farewell, going out the door but not before telling her to clean up the apartment and the blonde laughed, closing the door, knowing fully well that even if she does, Barry would just mess it up again.

Her mind tended to reel back to the past when she was alone, which was most of the time. The blonde could still hear Hephaestus' screams bore through her brain, she could still hear every bone chilling crack of his bones, she could still smell the pungent smell of his blood, taste the salt in her tears. While it happened roughly a hundred years ago, it still haunted her mind, her pain had morphed into a monster that donned her father's face.

He didn't want to leave Aphrodite alone, even after all these years, he was there daily to remind her that he had the upper hand, and he always will.

Which is why Aphrodite begged Diana to wipe her memories. Her sister did it for the first three times willingly, as she thought it would help Aphrodite heal from her past trauma but each time, Zeus had a way to creep back into her mind, to remind her that she was nothing but an embarrassment, that she wasn't even a God anymore, she didn't have her powers after all. The last time Diana did do it was three days ago, and if Aphrodite was being honest, Zeus creeper back faster this time. She feared that one day, her father will take over her mind completely. Her main objective was to get her powers back and face her father head on, but to be completely honest, Aphrodite didn't know how to do that.

an. Am I  going to give my characters an unnecessary amount of trauma for no reason , you know me too well yes, yes I am🙂😇 tbh it's kinda fun, lmao I need help lo😭🥱