"You admitting I'm right? My, how you have changed," Hera chuckled with a wry grin as he laid a kiss upon her knuckles. "In all fairness, Eris just might, provided it would shock you. She always was full of surprises. Still is. Half the time I don't even know what her hair color is supposed to be, she changes it so often. And she stains my bathroom with the dye."<br/><br/>Yet her amusement faded when Zeus told her of his encounter with Athena. She had hoped that Athena would already be willing to speak to him, but apparently he had not been wrong about the tumultuous nature of her departure. Her grin dissipated and she sat up to clasp her hands over his raised knee and rest her chin upon them, her dark eyes sympathetic. Even if she and Athena were hardly fond of each other, even if she was hardly fond of any of his children outside of their marriage, she knew how close he had considered Athena, his golden child. She knew how much he had relied upon her wisdom to counsel him and how he could rarely deny her anything she wanted, save for perhaps Prometheus' freedom. Hera had long envied that connection on behalf of her own children, who all too often had been scorned by their father in favor of his bastards. Hephaestus, Hebe, and Eileithyia had simply stopped trying, instead growing ever closer to her as if picking an ally in war. Eris had hardly cared for her father's authority, his disfavor did not a thing to discourage her. She simply devoted herself to her craft, the endeavor of sowing chaos across the world. And Ares, well, his reaction had been obvious. Her eldest had never been subtle.<br/><br/>"I'm sorry, my dear," she said softly, knowing how crushing it would feel to have any of her children turn her away, refuse to speak with her. "I know how much you value her. I cannot imagine it was easy to hear that from her of all people. Though with the right research and proper bargaining tool, we may be able to convince her. Or at the very least you. Somehow I doubt she will heed me of all people, in fact, I doubt many of them will be thrilled to see me again, but promise to give them what they desire most and follow through, and suddenly their opinion of you no longer matters."<br/><br/>Hera chewed her lip in thought when it came to speaking to the girls. Their girls. Not just hers, as she had always thought of them. The matter of Hebe and Heracles and was...complicated at best. There was not a single doubt that Heracles was grateful to Zeus for giving him Hebe as a wife and finally a life without suffering. Yet by virtue of being wed to Hebe, he had learned that Zeus' favor was not distributed equally among his offspring. Heracles still seemed conflicted in his feelings towards Zeus. As for Hebe, her disdain for her father had only seemed to grow following her marriage. She had not approved of being wedded without her consent, and even when she had found some affection with her new husband, found that it had hardly changed her standing in Zeus' eyes. And so bitterness lingered within her. Hera would have to look into that situation without throwing Zeus into the mess of it.<br/><br/>"I suggest starting with Eileithyia, she's practical, and of all our children she has the most reason to be concerned," she recommended, all too aware she did not have to explain what her words meant. Every god lived in fear of their more obscure children fading. Poseidon and Amphitrite had nearly worked themselves to the bone "preserving" their daughters and trying to instill them into mortal memory. More than once they had had a scare. Thankfully, they did not need to worry about Triton. Pop culture would at least preserve him for years to come. "Undoubtedly, it will be more of a confrontation than a discussion. Which is why I should be there when you speak to him. Time has mellowed him somewhat though. I think he feels he has more of a place here than he did in antiquity, without the whole of Greece making him out to be a foolish brute. At the very least I've heard more than a few women detailing how someone of his description had broken the arm of a man who tried groping them. So apparently he's been making himself useful."<br/><br/>Her son might have been brutish and loved a good fight more than anything, but he had always been respectful to her and his sisters, even outright affectionate. Indeed, it had surprised even her when it was revealed that he was father of the Amazons, or had at least had a role in their origins. Despite his rivalry with Athena, Ares had always seemed to have a respect for women, mortal or divine. He certainly had never attempted trickery like his father, uncle, and brothers to seduce women. He didn't even seem to realize he was popular with women in the first place. But he was her son and had inherited both his father's remarkable strength, and her looks. Naturally, he received his fair share of attention.