A/N This was a request. Opinions would be lovely if you could do it without flames. Thanks!

Six years.

To the old me, that would've seemed like eons. But hey, when you're suddenly given immortality and don't have to worry about each day being your last, time flies by faster than the Stolls with the entire Aphrodite cabin on their heels.

Six years since the day of my deification.

I don't know whether it's a blessing, a curse - whatever floats your boat. I've even started speaking like the Olympians, with all their airs and graces. Count that as a point for team "It's bloody awful".

Sure, Dad said he wanted the best for me, but when when the gods decided to dump the whole immortality package on a couple of unlucky schmucks, this probably wasn't what he thought I'd be doing in half a decade.

Then again, he's the God of War. Alliances are his thing. I'm probably still just a pawn to him, the ungrateful bastard. We saved his ass in the war and he didn't even acknowledge it. Well, camp has me to look out for it. Immortality does have a few perks.

But, back to my point. (I could rant for years about Ares, so I'll stop before I get carried away).

"My name is Clarisse La Rue, and I'm on track to marry the greatest hero to walk the Earth."

Why am I not celebrating, you ask? Sounds positively blissful. To live forever with one of the greatest warriors ever… Yeah, how about no. You can see why Ares liked him, though; Both hot-headed, both war-starters. This was all his idea, and technically it benefits us both, but I'm not bloody seeing it. This whole thing is just another one of his damn alliances, so to keep me out from underneath his feet! If he carries on avoiding me, I might just set fire to one of Aphrodite's beloved gowns and blame it on him. She may be goddess of love and all those stupid emotions, but her wrath is a thing to be feared. He'd deserve it.

Heracles himself isn't a total jerk. I mean, he's a bit brash and kinda thick, but generally okay. He's come to see me a few times, to "court" me, in my brand new godly palace. Another of the gods' gifts - so naturally, I hate it. Aphrodite (she's either really pathetic and forgetful, or just has it out for me) and Athena designed it, so of course it's filled with everlasting flowers and frankly ridiculous delicate silk drapes. Everytime I try to get rid of the damn things they just reappear the next day! I'm beginning to give up. Maybe I'll blackmail them later to change it. The decorations, combined with Heracles' daily gifts, mean that I'm drowning in the fanciest and grandest items the world has to offer. Literally. Yesterday it was an actual warship. Heracles knows my taste, I'll give him that.

The problem with being the current hot couple of Olympus? Aphrodite. Now that she sees us as (almost) equals, she's cool with me. Sort of. I maintain that she knows that I hate what she's done to this building, and is just trying to aggravate me.

We met once during my mortal life, when Dad caused a mess in camp. She turned up in a flurry of sparkles (typical) because the Ares cabin had declared war on hers, but she was more concerned with him than his children. To be fair, he had started it. More worried about her daughter's hair than my siblings, she dismissed me without a second thought. Hah, I bet she didn't even dream that we'd end up like this.

So. I'm guessing she's either trying to make amends, or has forgotten my parentage.

To add to the list of things I dislike about her, she blessed the pairing before Ares even finished his announcement. It was just another cute couple to her. Heracles, bold as ever, thanked her profusely then excused us before I could throw something at her stupid, beaming face.

Maybe this whole situation isn't as bad as I'm making it out to be. Heracles is good with dealing with the Olympians, which is something I suck at. Like, Prissy Jackson level of suckage. It's kinda hard being polite to a bunch of people who made everyone at camp's lives absolutely hellish. They screwed us over too many times to count.

Heracles is growing on me. I didn't like to admit it, but he is. We're civil with each other. Well, I'm civil with him. He's a gentleman to me. I taught him very early on about how to act around me. Try to bully me into something? I told him a few choice locations of where to stick his sword after he tried to force me into attending the Olympus Christmas party.

To put it bluntly, he hasn't tried since, and we're getting along. Just about. In a way, he reminds me of Chris Rodriguez..

Heracles will never be Chris. That was a once-in-a-lifetime relationship, and Heracles won't be able to beat that in a million years. But then again, Heracles isn't the worst the universe has to offer. I may have lost out on my fairytale ending, but I could still be happy. Maybe..

As Aphrodite loves to say every ten seconds: I guess time will tell.