Inconvenient Truths

Dark poured a glass of red liquid from the nearby carafe and drank, wondering how she was going to end this awkward silence. They should probably address what he'd said about wanting her. She didn't know what time of day it was or whether it was appropriate to be drinking blood laced wine but, she needed something to settle her if she was going to start that inevitable argument, "Listen, about what you said in the cel-"

"I don't want to talk about it," he bit out the reply as if he was still thinking about that bed.

Yeah, well, neither did she but it seemed like they *should*. Even if he didn't want to. Especially with what he implied about Hades. She wondered if he wished he hadn't said the part about himself.

"I don't really give a damn what you want to talk about, though," she drank deeply once more, "Hell I want to be dry and *in* hell right now. But I'm sitting in your palace wet instead."

She almost missed the bob of his throat," You know what I mean... Anyway, you implied I was going to break Hades... I don't want that type of burden put on me. Fuck, I mean I'm just trying to make the best of a bad situation here. I didn't ask to be thrown into Angel's shitstorm. I thought I'd come here and have some fun, fuck some gods, kill a fate, end a war and give this all back to Angel. I didn't expect..."

"To feel things? Like obligation? Or duty? Or perhaps even more than that?" His eyes were probing her face, looking for any sign of her thoughts, "It's almost poetic that you're exactly what I thought Angel was when I first met her, selfish and cruel."

"So because I don't want to be careful with someone else's boyfriend, I'm cruel? I didn't ask to be here. I didn't ask for this situation. Hell, Angel didn't even ask to be made like the rest of you probably did. WE DIDN'T HAVE A FUCKING CHOICE! We've never had a fucking choice. She didn't give me much choice when she made me take her place either. And now that I finally have some semblance of control, you want me to feel bad for using it? Fuck you."

"No, it's because you've decided to drag him into your fun. I wonder if you considered him at all when you opened that can of worms. I mean a threesome is hardly groundbreaking. Hardly worth mentioning and yet, I am mentioning it because he *loves* Angel. You understand that right? A god who doesn't love easily, if at all, loves the woman whose face you wear and you don't give a damn. You certainly didn't give a damn when you went back for Tantalus, the god who literally helped kill the woman Hades loves... helped put her in a torture loop for a century? Does that ring any bells?"

Poseidon's voice was steadily growing as he fed into the argument for the sake of releasing whatever tension he'd been holding since she brought up the bed. That was exactly what she'd expected but these words? These accusations he was slinging? She hadn't expected that and if the swell of his chest as he took deep, angry breaths, was any measure, he was genuinely pissed at her about this.

"I was fucking there, no need to give me a refresher course," she growled, pouring a fresh drink and gulping at it, her face burning with the way Poseidon stared at her like he wanted to rip off her head.

"I think maybe you did need the reminder because Angel supposedly loved Tantalus first and he supposedly loved her. Ares swears it's true so who am I to say. That might even be a more impressive feat than getting Hades to fall in love, if I'm being honest. And you should know these are not words I use lightly. Gods don't say that word unless they mean it. Being ageless and living forever puts a lot into perspective. We don't say it unless we are sure it's eternal and yet. TWO have said as much to Angel. And you put them in the same room. Enemies. Gods who HATE each other because of a million different reasons but especially because of Angel."

"Are you expecting an apology or something? What exactly are you looking to gain here? I sleep with who I want, when I want, where I want and I don't owe anyone an explanation for it. I mean you're talking as if I've somehow offended *you*, not them!" She threw her hands up, exasperated. Who the hell did Poseidon think he was? Dark wanted to punch that judgmental fucking face. She hated that she felt guilty all of a sudden. She hated that he was even making sense.

"Do you honestly not understand what you're doing? What you're risking by playing these games? He nearly broke over these last few months and you've decided to come back and push him a little harder. THAT is why I feel personally offended. If you want to fuck around FINE, do it, but be honest about it. Tell him everything you're saying to me because he needs to understand that you're not her, you're not who he loves, even if you look like her."

Something hot and sickening flushed through her body. This wasn't fair. She didn't sign on for guilt tripping or whatever the hell this was. She felt like a child who'd been scolded. Even though she hadn't intended to cause any issues, it seemed she kept making things worse. Since when was sex so complicated? From what she'd seen with Angel, sex happened and no one seemed to upset about it afterwards except Angel. That should have been simple to solve because Dark *wouldn't* be hurt about it. Except when she had sex apparently EVERYONE else was upset about it afterwards even if she wasn't. What kind of annoying twist of fate what this shit?

"I didn't expect so many people would care what I did and with whom," she glared, "I wasn't playing a game or trying to be cruel. I've told you all every chance I get that I'm not Angel and yet people still expect her from me and it's stupid. If you want me to be honest, no problem. I'll call a damn meeting and explain to everyone that I'm just looking for a good time. Will that make you happy?"

"It's not my place to say what you should do or not, I'm just trying to look out for my brother. He loves you—or Angel, whatever. And whether you mean to or not, you have a lot of power over him, Dark. I just want you to be careful with it," Poseidon sighed, running his fingers over his forehead. He sipped at his own glass of wine and closed his eyes, "We can't afford for him to fall apart in the middle of a war, okay?"

"That's all you want?" She studied his face, "Because sometimes it feels like you're also playing a game, only you're playing it with yourself and you won't tell me the rules." He met her quizzical gaze, as if they were both thinking about his confession in the cell, as if they were both wondering why he felt comfortable enough to bring her to his house when he hardly knew anything about her. As if they were both aware of how his words contradicted his actions. His actions said he was interested even if his words said he'd protect his brother.

"What did you mean when you said Angel didn't give you a choice either?" he asked suddenly, refusing to acknowledge her last question.

Dark huffed, then inhaled, "I mean exactly what it sounds like. I told her to come back. I'm a behind the scenes kind of girl, you know? I've always watched. Even in hell, I only surfaced when I needed to because she couldn't hack it. But after the involution she was in the darkness bad. She took a long time to come out of it and when she did, she said she couldn't come back. She didn't want to come back."

"You didn't make her do it anyway?"

Dark laughed hard, in a way that said nothing about this was funny. She pushed back from the table, "You'd do that huh? Force your sibling to go back to their torture if they begged you to take their place instead? Of course I didn't fucking make her. I knew she couldn't hack it, like always," she rolled her eyes but there was a hint of sadness, "And I figured I'd scratch off some shit on my own personal bucket list while I was here. Kill some raging bitches. Fuck some delicious gods. Visit places I wanted to go that Angel never took us. Do things she was too scared to do. But instead what did I get? A bunch of hurt feelings and whining and fighting over me when I didn't ask to be fought over."

"I wish everyone would just figure it out already that I'm not HER! So I made myself extra bitchy, extra unaffected so the distinction would be clear. But did that work? Nope. Now I've resorted to cutting my hair just so people stop seeing her when they look at me."

Poseidon didn't say anything for a long while, and Dark merely topped off her glass once more and kept drinking. This whole mortal body thing was definitely not as fun as she thought it was going to be.

"This is not why I brought us here," he cleared his throat suddenly, straightening his back in his chair. She didn't know what to make of the look he gave her but she decided it wasn't hostile anymore. At this rate, they wouldn't finish a single conversation and if they were all going to be as awkward and taxing as they'd been thus far, she was perfectly fine to never speak again.

"We've gotten off topic. I brought us here to rest and eat while we figured out our next steps."

"Our next steps should be to alert Ares and Zeus and the others of what we've found," Dark said, happy for the change of conversation. Her head was starting to hurt with all this thinking. Why did Poseidon make her consider all these things she'd never thought of? Why couldn't she stop replaying every interaction she'd had since waking up with the titans? Why did she suddenly feel so self conscious?

Had she been wrong to goad the titan brothers? Sure, she'd played them all off of each other a bit but what was so wrong with that? It was fun and it hadn't hurt anyone... but what if she'd slept with them like she admittedly wanted to? Would it destroy something between them? Why did she care? Dark dragged her nails across the table.

This line of thinking was inconvenient. So what she'd slept with Hades and Tantalus together? They were all grown. So what if they hadn't intended to share? She had. She didn't have the same reservations as Angel and there was no good reason not to enjoy every damn male she wanted to. But then Poseidon had poisoned her mind and now she did see reasons. Lots of them and it made her unsure.