10 Chapter 10: Relaxing

"Hey Phae-Phae?" I say as I sit on the couch in Hephaestus's office. I had a good nights sleep after returning from the dungeon and ended up sleeping much longer than usual. It's mid-day now and I have nothing to do at the moment. I could get to work on the weapons for the Loki Familia but I just want to relax today.

"What is it Heine?" she replies, not looking up from the papers on her desk.

"Want to go on a date?" I ask and I see her freeze. She slowly looks up at me and I can't help but find her reaction cute after what we did yesterday.

"A-a date? As in just you and me, alone? Right now?" she asks shyly.

"Yes, a date. You would think after what we did yesterday you wouldn't be so shy about this." I say with a grin, making her blush.

"Please don't mention that!" she says. My grin turns wider as I get up from the couch and start walking towards her desk.

"Alright, I won't mention it. . . but I can always just make you remember." I quietly say as I bring my face close to hers. I look her in the eyes as her face turns redder before she turns away.

"You don't have to do that! We can go on the date, right now even! Yes, lets go!" she hurriedly says as she gets up and pulls me out of the office without looking at me.

I smile as I let her lead me out of Babel and can't help but start laughing when she freezes and turns to look at me.

"Ummm. . . where are we going for our date?" she asks me and I just laugh harder.

"I thought you knew with how quickly you led me out." I say and she laughs nervously.

"Sorry, you lead the way then. It was your Idea after all." she says.

I laugh and grab her hand before making my way towards the south exit of Orario. Once we're there, I lead us out of the city and into the grass plains sparsely riddled with trees. After walking for a while I lead us to a lone tree and stop. Hephaestus looks at me weirdly until I pull a blanket from my {Dimensional Storage} and lay it out on the ground.

"My lady." I say as I gesture to the blanket on the ground. She giggles at my antics before sitting down and once she does so, I sit next to her. I bring out the food I had prepared in my kitchen before proposing the idea of a date and place it in front of us. Looking at the food, I can see Hephaestus's eyes shining. The food here is the same food she orders from the Hostess of Fertility, her favorites. Only this time, they are made by yours truly. I also have desert but that's a surprise for later.

"Did you make all of this?" she asks me and I nod in response.

"Of course, I had to prepare the best food for my beautiful goddess." I say grandly and she laughs again.

"Thank you, Heine. Lets eat!" she says and I make a sad face.

"My love has chosen my food over me! Whatever will I do!?" I say and she slaps me on the shoulder with a laugh. I laugh as well before I begin eating along side her.

"I never thought to come out here to relax before. It's a nice and relaxing place. Away from the hustle and bustle of the city." she says as she looks around at the area around us and the sight of the city in the distance.

"You're busy with work all the time. You don't normally have the luxury to think about a lot of things." I say in response making her nod her head sadly.

"But I'm here now, to get you your much needed breaks from work. You cant be all work and no play Phae-Phae." I say as I poke her side. She swats my hand away with a smile before continuing to eat her food.

"You also can't be all work and no play. You spent so long in the dungeon that I barely had any time to see you." she says with a cute pout.

"I know, I won't be going back in for now. I get the feeling if I go in anytime soon, the dungeon will try harder to kill me." I say and she looks at me worriedly.

"I'm not letting you go in alone anymore. Take Tsubaki with you for a while until you can find yourself a party." she says and I smile at her.

"Doesn't Tsubaki have her own things she has to take care of? You can't make her give up her own time just because you're worried about me." I say.

"I already talked about it with her, she says she's fine with it." she says and I shake my head with a smile.

"Alright if you say so." I say and we continue talking about little things while eating our food. Once we're done, we lay on our backs and look up at the sky above. I grab her hand in mine and I feel her grip it tightly. I look over at her to see her looking at me with a smile. She's so beautiful I just can't help myself.

Without saying a word, I move myself over her and look down on her. She looks up at me with a blush and closes her eyes, inviting me to do whatever I please. I bring my lips to hers and kiss her passionately. One of my hands rubs along her side as the other plays with her hair.

I stop kissing her lips and kiss her cheek, making her giggle. I smile and kiss the side of her chin and then kiss her neck causing her to let out a small moan. I pull back and look at her beautiful face as she looks back up at me.

"Do you. . .want to keep going?" she asks shyly.

"No, you're a God and I'm a Demi-God. We have a very very long time together ahead of us. Let's not rush things. I'm fine with kisses until you're completely comfortable with letting me taste the rest of you." I say and she gives me a bright smile and nods her head before pulling me back in to kiss once more.

After a bit, we separate and just lay there in each other's arms. If I can spend more time like this with Hephaestus then I won't mind not going back into the dungeon for a while.

"While we are out here, why don't I level you up." She says into my chest after a bit of time has passed.

"Right, we could have done that yesterday but we got a bit distracted didn't we?" I ask and she pinches my side making me shout in pain.

"shut up and strip." she says before realizing the phrasing was a bit off. "wait I didn't-"

"I just said we shouldn't rush Phae-Phae. Maybe I'm the one who should be worrying about their virtue." I say as I quickly take my shirt off before she can reply.

She glares at me but chooses not to say anything as she gets on my back and starts working on leveling me up.

"You need to pick a development ability and I need a sheet a paper to copy your status onto." she says and I nod and hand her a sheet from my {Dimensional Storage}. I keep a stack in there in case I find anyone to bring into the Familia.

"What are my choices?" I ask and she quickly responds.

"Mage, Hunter, and Spirit Healing. Mage will improve the power and effective range of your magic as well as improve the mind usage. Hunter will improve your abilities against monsters you've hunted and gained Excella from before. Spirit Healing will provide you with automatic mind regeneration." she says and I pause to think for a bit before making my decision.

"My magic, {Divine Flame} is versatile and far less restricted than others so I don't need Mage at the moment. Spirit Healing would be useful but I can make do without it for now. Hunter is the one I want since I'll have to be fighting more monsters than usual in the dungeon due to its dislike for me." I say and she happily nods in agreement with me. After she finishes and copies my status onto paper, I take a look at it.

[Name] - Heine

[Age] - 15

[Race] - Demi-God

[Level] - 2

[Strength] - EX1500 -> I0

[Endurance] - EX1500 -> I0

[Dexterity] - EX1500 -> I0

[Agility] - EX1500 -> I0

[Magic] - EX1500 -> I0

[Skills] - {Hammer of Hephaestus} - {Forge Library} - {Dimensional Storage} - {Armament Master} - {Demi-God}

[Magic] - {Divine Flame}(Divine Flame Whip, Divine Flame Wall)

[Development Abilities] - {Divine Blacksmith} - {Hunter}

"Level 2 in a month. . . eveyone in Orario is going to go crazy once this is announced." Hephaestus says making me laugh.

"Im more worried about what my title will be. I don't want anything wierd." I say as she rubs her hands along my back. She's certainly getting more comfortable.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure you get a good one." she says as she continues to get handsy.

"I'm not sure if I should believe you after what you named my shop. I'm quite certain my hammer isn't little." I say and I feel her hands freeze on my back. I'm quite sure she'll try to change the subject but she quickly proves me wrong. She leans down and presses her chest to my back and I can feel her breath on the back of my neck.

"In that case, I look forward to the day you introduce me to your 'Hammer'." she whispers in my ear. I let out a growl before flipping her over and pinning her down. I smash my lips against hers with a ferocius hunger and she kisses me back as we lose ourselves to each other once more.

Eventually though, we notice the sky turning orange and realize just how long we've been out here.

"It seems we lost track of time." I say and she nods in response.

"Yeah we did but I don't mind. I enjoyed our date a lot." she says with a beautiful smile.

We get up and I pack everything up before we make our way back to Orario, hand in hand. At the gate we see the gate guards smiling at us and Hepharstus blushes in embarrassment. I smile back at them with a wave as we head into the city and start walking back towards Babel.

On the way there I feel a gaze on us and I instinctively look up at the top floor of the tower. There I see Freya with my God eyes, looking down at us with a grimace on her face. It seems she's only just realizing the depth of the relationship between me and Hephaestus.

I smile and wave at her. Hephaestus sees what I'm doing and where I'm looking at and catches on to what I'm doing. She pulls closer to me and wraps her arm around mine before waving at Freya with a huge grin on her face.

I chuckle at her actions and we happily walk home while Freya glares at us.

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[Freya POV]

I'm currently partaking in my favorite pastime, looking down on Orario.

However, this time I see something I really don't like. Hephaestus and her Demi-God walking hand in hand down the street towards the tower. If her relationship with him is one of deep love then that will throw a wrench into all of my plans. It will be far more difficult to coax him to my side if he holds her in his heart.

As I'm looking at them it seems the boy senses my gaze as he looks up directly at me before waving at me with a smile. Normally I would be happy at this course of action but I can see the reason for his doing so and it seems Hephaestus does so as well. She proceeds to do the same with an infuriating grin on her face.

Some of my plans will have to change. Before I can bring him to my side I need to find a way to make them grow apart.

"Ottar, I need you to do a few things for me my dear." I say to my most loyal and capable servant and as usual he quickly obeys.

"I will do whatever it is you ask of me my goddess."

I tell him what he needs to do before looking at the pair walking below one last time.

I will make you mine, Heine.

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- A/N: A bit of a shorter chapter this time due to lack of time but I got it out. If there are any grammar or spelling mistakes it's because this time I wrote this on my phone and didn't have time to proofread it. Either way, I hope you all enjoy the chapter.