"Mmmph!"
Ocean Song was currently tied up, hoisted up in the air, and held upside down while gagged in the middle of the cabin.
"So, uh…mom. You like them young, huh?" Hecate's oldest daughter finally asked.
The Goddess of Magic wasn't one to get embarrassed.
She was, however, the vengeful sort.
"This is your fault." She grabbed a magazine off an end table, rolled it up, and started hitting the pinata that was Ocean Song. "This is what happens when you say things without explaining them properly!"
"So, you didn't just grab him from the cradle and think he would make the perfect husbando?"
Hecate's eye twitched.
There were very few people who could speak to her like this.
Her children fell into the category of being allowed to.
The Goddess of Magic let out an uncharacteristic growl and started smacking Ocean Song even more.
"Mom! Stop hurting Mr. Ocean!" Lyra ran up on the verge of tears, grabbing her mother's dress.
The sight of her daughter made Hecate's anger immediately disappear.
She quickly scooped the younger girl up into her arms. "Don't worry, sweetie, Mommy isn't hurting Mr. Ocean."
The rope holding him from the ceiling snapped, making him hit the ground.
Hecate ignored it as she consoled her daughter.
Ocean Song took this opportunity to try and inch out the door like a caterpillar.
"Your boytoy is escaping, Mom," Lou pointed out.
"Don't call him that. You will speak to him with respect." Hecate replied firmly, but without sounding harsh. A mother scolding her child. "And set one foot outside that door and see what happens."
In one breath, she was defending Ocean Song; in the other, daring him to try and run away.
"Mom, is he your boyfriend?" One of the children asked.
"It's…complicated." Hecate forced out.
"A booty call?" Lou asked.
"Lou Blackstone, I will rip your world asunder."
Her daughter responded by sticking out her tongue, earning a finger point and a glare as a warning from her mother.
Ocean Song noted something in particular.
That is, their relationships seemed much more…sincere? More sincere than what he would have thought.
Gods, specifically the Olympians, seemed to even retain some sort of barrier between themselves and their children.
Even for him and his father Poseidon, Ocean Song recognized that his father demanded a certain level of respect in public and even in private.
If Ocean Song genuinely said something insulting to his father, his father would respond as a god.
When Hecate's daughter said something 'insulting' or mocking in this case, her mother responded as a mother.
"So, Mom. How'd you meet the one-year-old?" Lou asked.
The others seemingly had the same question on their minds.
Hecate let out a very long sigh. "He's not one year old." She glared at Ocean Song. "Tell them."
The gag in his mouth was magically removed.
"I was born earlier this year."
Hecate let out a growl and gagged him back up and started hitting him with the magazine again. "You're doing this on purpose now!"
Though, the kids actually found it funny at this point. Lyra, the youngest, was perhaps the only one starting to cry and pulled on her mom's shirt.
It was enough that Hecate had to stop hitting the idiot and sooth her daughter again.
"He's not one year old. He summoned me to the island he was born on, and he asked for a boon. He wanted to be trapped in a time-locked space for twenty years for 'training' or whatever nonsense he said at the time" Hecate finally explained.
"Mom, what the fuck?"
"What?" Hecate was confused.
"You put a newborn into isolation for twenty years on an island? It's a miracle that he didn't go crazy." Lou pointed out.
Hecate was about to respond, then blinked as if realizing something.
She then looked at Ocean Song.
He wasn't tied up anymore, and his hands were clasped behind his back as his robes mysteriously waved in the non-existent wind.
"Fear not, I asked for it, and I remain completely sane. As a proper Cultivator, going into secluded Cultivation for decades is not strange."
For Hecate, that seemed to confirm some newfound thoughts in her mind.
"Besides, if I never did such a thing, I would not have ever become worthy enough to enter the eyes of your mother. I would have gone to far greater lengths to earn even a single glance from Hecate." He smiled. "Any pain or suffering pales to the feeling of when I can see her smile."
Hecate wasn't one to get embarrassed.
There were rare exceptions.
Specifically, if all her children were staring at her while a certain idiot Cyclops was spouting off romantic and heartfelt words to her in earshot.
"...God damn, Mom," Lou whispered. "Well, at least I get it now."
"Alright, that's enough." Hecate huffed. "Come along, children, I left you all homework, and I expect it to be finished."
"Awww, Mom!"
"I didn't finish yet!"
"I forgot how to read."
"None of that." She glared at them. "You will be finishing your homework or I'm taking away…." She looked around. "I will remove the TV if a single one of you isn't finished with it by tonight."
That got a collective whining from a bunch of the kids.
The more mature ones just shook their heads because they understood she was doing her best to corral them.
For Demigods, you generally grew up quickly.
The difference between being 'young' and 'old' among their number was a far smaller line than many would think.
"Are you wondering why Mom is around when the other gods aren't allowed to be?" Lou looked up at Ocean Song as he watched her retreating figure.
"The thought did cross my mind, but I did not wish to voice it and ruin the mood." He nodded.
"Mom said that she's technically allowed to come around to 'build' up the cabin and to do lessons. The lessons are public, so she can't use that as an excuse to come check up on us specifically. But, uh…she's milking the whole 'building the cabin' excuse as much as she can. Some of the younger ones have been breaking things just to make sure she comes by and fixes them."
"Those excuses won't last long." Ocean Song said softly.
"Yeah..." Lou whispered. "We all know that, even the kids. We're just happy to have her as much as we do. Not all of the kids here were lucky to have a parent in our lives, you know."
Ocean Song, for some reason, understood that she wasn't merely speaking of a mortal parent to raise them.
"Hell, some of us didn't even have a second parent." She let out a chuckle. "Mom didn't always make a kid with the help of someone else. Though, it's probably not as weird as it sounds considering the Athena Cabin."
It wasn't that strange.
Even ignoring the Athena cabin, which is born from the thoughts of the Goddess when she meets someone she finds intellectually stimulating, there are recounts in myths and legends about children being born in unconventional ways.
It would be easy for the Goddess of Magic to make a child through such unconventional methods.
"Mom has a lot of children." Lou eyed him. "Like, a lot of kids. Not just all of us here in the Cabin. Mom told us about all her other children that are still running around. But even ignoring the old ones, none of us are full siblings."
"Yes?" Ocean Song was confused.
"I'm saying that Mom wasn't exactly the wholesome partner. When she was lonely, she would go out and find someone to spend the night with." Lou unconsciously tucked some hair behind her ear as she crossed her arms. "I asked Mom about it before, 'Why didn't you love Dad?' the same questions all of us usually have. She explained it to me when I got older and understood. It was a one-night stand. She was lonely and wanted some companionship. She doesn't try to get pregnant, but if it happens, she lets it happen."
It was as if she were judging Ocean Song's reaction, gauging his response to this kind of information.
It wasn't the most flattering description of the goddess.
Lou was aware of this and was explicitly doing it on purpose.
"She said that she never loved any of our parents. I kind of appreciate the honesty in a way. I'm not some wide-eyed brat now; I understand that sometimes people just want to spend the night together. I'm just…curious if you think differently of Mom knowing this."
"You think I would be upset?" Ocean Song tilted his head.
"Isn't it weird when boys find out that girls have had a lot of partners?" Lou asked.
Ocean Song chuckled. "Why would I be upset? If I were to get upset, it would be condemning all of you, to reject your existence. And that would mean to reject parts of her heart and by extension herself."
Lou was silent as she digested what he just told her.
It was definitely not the response she was expecting.
On one hand, she was expecting some kind of 'eww' response to being told that her mom was kind of sleeping around a lot.
The other end, she was expecting like an 'It's in the past' sort of deal.
She did not expect him to just be so…openly accepting of it? Accepting of it because of her children out of everything.
Her own stepmother despised her and constantly reminded her of this fact. And she always said that it was because of her 'whore of a mother.' It just became a sort of assumption that step-parents didn't like their step-children.
"Gods, did Mom really whip you that hard already? Did she already drag you off into her bed?" Lou said mockingly because it was the easiest thing to say due to her strange emotions right now.
Ocean Song puffed up his chest. "I am still as pure as fresh snow!" He said proudly.
It took a moment for Lou to understand what he meant by that.
"Oh my god." Lou covered her face in embarrassment. "You can't just say something like that!"
"Though, we have kissed.
"Stoppp, I don't want to hear it.
"Twice."
"Mom, your boyfriend is being weird!" Lou screamed as she ran away.
[Line Break]
It was rare for Hecate to experience something like this.
As the Goddess of Magic, she had duties, but she often spent most of her time in the Underworld.
The rarity that she could…act like a parent, a mother to her children without anything else to get in the way.
She knew it wouldn't last, but it was enough right now in the moment that she cherished it.
Hecate was a goddess that truly loved her children from the bottom of her heart.
That's why she was having some strange butterflies in her chest right now as she watched the stupid Cyclops of hers play with her youngest kids.
Flying them up into the air a few dozen feet, swinging them around, or just getting down on the ground, getting dirty, and rolling around in the mud just to get a laugh out of them.
"Your boyfriend is weird."
Hecate's eldest daughter in camp told her very bluntly.
"Be nice to him."
"So protective~"
Hecate huffed. "Do you have anything productive to say, or are you just here to make fun of me?"
"I like him." She said casually.
"...do you?"
"He's weird."
"Yes, I know." The goddess deadpanned.
"But not a bad weird, I think. There definitely is a screw loose somewhere, but, like… I wouldn't be scared if I met him in a dark alley at night.
"What a glowing review."
"I told him you were a whore." Her daughter blurted out. "I wanted to see what he would say. Do you want to know what he said?"
Hecate's eye twitched, and she reached out and pulled on her daughter's cheek. "I am not a whore. And you need to watch your mouth, you've been getting very comfortable with that language around your siblings."
"Right, sorry." Lou grumbled, knowing that this was a more sincere reprimand. "Do you want to know what he said?"
Hecate let out a sigh. "Probably something stupid."
"Wow, you really do know him. How long have you been dating?"
"We are not dating." Hecate crossed her arms. "It's…complicated."
"Well, I didn't tell him that some of my siblings had mothers, not fathers." Lou gave her mom a little smirk. "Do you think he'd want to know that?"
Hecate let out a harumph. "You say that as if I have anything to be ashamed of."
"I don't know, it might break his brain. He's weirdly considerate and sort of wise, then the next moment he opens his mouth and says something really weird."
Hecate was surprised.
Not at her description.
She was actually spot on.
She was surprised because her daughter somehow managed to profile him so quickly and accurately in just a few minutes of meeting him.
"...I like him too." Hecate admitted it to the ears of her daughter only.
"Should I start calling him dad?" Lou smiled.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves."
But Hecate smiled.
It was a rare respite in the life of a goddess where she could pretend she lived a normal life outside of the chaos of godhood.
[Line Break]
A/N
A quiet chapter where Ocean Song meets the kids and gains their approval.
If you want to read 1 chapter ahead or support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / astoryforone
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