curiously_cora | (no subject)

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aphrodite

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Coraline was completely unimpressed with Luke. Coraline wasn't completely naive, she knew that people had sex but all the people she knew that had sex were in relationships. Loving, happy relationships. Everyone told Coraline that if she wanted to have sex that she had to love that person very much and be very old and stuff. But Luke was using it like a- like a handshake. And that was wrong, Aphrodite was a Lady. She was a Goddess! And she had to be treated right! So Coraline was going to make sure Luke treated her right even if it meant he never, ever talked to her again.

"Aphrodite? Um, Miss Aphrodite?" Coraline called out scrunching her face up before knocking on her door. Coraline covered her ears just in case Luke was there before dropping them away. "Um, hello? Aphrodite? I'm here to talk to you. If you don't mind."

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Aphrodite is, in fact, home alone, her company for the night having already left to go about his day. She's slipping her awesomely cute new pink sandals on to go out herself when there's a knock at the door accompanied by a familiar girl's voice, and Aphrodite slips the second shoe on before going to answer it.

"Hey, Coraline!" she says, smiling brightly as she answers the door. "What's up, sweet pea?"

"Um, it's about-" Coraline paused, trying to figure out the best way to tackle 'My friend is a boy and an idiot and you need to make him treat you like a lady'. Coraline sighed, brushing her hair behind her ear before looking at Aphrodite seriously. "-it's about boys and dating and um sex."

"Oooh, sounds juicy," Aphrodite replies with an interested smile, her brows lifting briefly. She steps to the side and motions for Coraline to enter. "Come on in and you can tell me all about it."

Edited 2012-03-22 00:13 (UTC)

"Okay," Coraline said taking a leaf out of Johnny's book and adding a long awkward um in there for good measure. At least Aphrodite couldn't smite her or anything. Well, she hoped she couldn't at least. "Well, you see I have this friend and he's really nice and everything but he doesn't know how to treat a lady."

"Doesn't know how to treat a lady, huh?" Aphrodite takes a seat on her little couch, turned slightly to the side with her arm resting on the back, and gestures for Coraline to sit next to her. "This...friend wouldn't happen to be Johnny, would it?" If it is, he is so getting a talking to.

Coraline took the seat, fussing with her hair and clothes as she squirmed uncomfortably as she tried to figure out a way to approach the subject of Luke and ew Hook Ups.

"No, Johnny's always a gentleman. His hands always stay above my waist and he takes me on dates and he's always nice to me even if he does think some of my ideas are weird or strange or dangerous." Coraline said shaking her head. Johnny was definitely not the problem. "No, it's um... so my friend, he's treating this lady terribly. He's not taking her on dates or holding hands or doing anything right with her, he's doing it really wrong and he doesn't think he's doing it wrong."

Johnny sounds like he's doing well, and Aphrodite nods approvingly. Coraline's young, she doesn't really need to be doing more with a boy than what she's described. "So when you say this friend of yours is treating her terribly, how do you know that?" she asks, lips pursing slightly as she puzzles it out. "I mean, I assume you're not spying on them, so - does he tell you about the stuff they do together? Are you friends with the lady too and she's complaining about it to you or something?"

"Ew, ew, ew," Coraline said clasping her hands over her ears when she got to the telling her about stuff they do together. Coraline really, really didn't want to think about that. Not with... no, just no. "No, well sort of. He was telling me how they 'hook up' and that they don't do anything properly together like holding hands or dates or anything romantic. And I thought maybe it was because she didn't know he was supposed to do those sort of things first."

"Not like that, silly," Aphrodite says with a little flip of one hand. "I just meant what they do together in general, not necessarily physical things."

She settles back a little more against her couch, listening to Coraline's explanation. "You don't think she knows?" she asks, slightly surprised. "How old is this girl? Are you sure that's what it is, and not just that she's not interested in that kind of thing?"

"Um," Coraline froze at the question about age. Coraline knew, even at fourteen, that you never added years on to a lady especially an older one because they got very funny about it. "Twenty one? I don't know she's very pretty and beautiful. She's maybe your age?"

Coraline looked at Aphrodite like she was very silly before adding. "She's... um, well... I don't know but he should treat her better. He shouldn't just be having you know. You're only supposed to do that with someone you love, and loving someone involves dates and dancing and romance."

Aphrodite gives Coraline an indulgent smile. "Oh, that's totally sweet of you, Coraline, but there aren't many people on this island who are actually my age." She looks way, way younger than she actually is, something Aphrodite's working totally hard to maintain.

She knows Coraline's being serious, but she can't help the almost pitying expression that crosses her face. Aphrodite's seen it before, when the girl who grows up believing in true love finds out that's not how it always works. "Awww, that is so cute," she says, not derogatorily, but it's clear she thinks Coraline is being naive. "Sweet pea, there's nothing at all wrong with deciding you want to wait until you are in love before you have sex. And there's nothing wrong with wanting romance, either, hey, I'm all for romance. But not everyone wants the same things, and that's okay too. There are all kinds of love."

"No, they're definitely you're age." Coraline said seriously before sighing. "But if you like romance then why is he- I mean, surely you should love someone if you're going to be with them. Otherwise why do people have sex."

"Well, it's not really that black and white. People have sex for lots of different reasons. Sometimes because they're in love with each other, but not always," Aphrodite explains. "But just because they're not in love doesn't mean there isn't love involved. Like I said, there are all kinds of love, many, many kinds."

She pauses, her eyes narrowing. "What does me liking romance have to do with anything, though?" she asks. "These two people you're asking about, did I set them up or something?"

"No, not exactly." Coraline said making a face before finally admitting with a long breath. "Well, it's about Luke. And um, you."

"Wait, me and Luke?" Aphrodite repeats incredulously, her eyebrows raising. Presumably Luke told Coraline about them, otherwise Aphrodite doesn't know how she would have found out. "Hang on a second. So you're telling me you, a teenage girl, came here to to give me, the goddess of love, advice on how a guy I'm seeing should be treating me?"

Aphrodite bursts out laughing.

"Of course- why are you laughing?" Coraline asked looking confused at Aphrodite as she started to laugh. "He should treat you properly and you should go on dates and hold hands and stuff. He was smiling, he never smiles like that so you both have to do things right so he keeps smiling like that."

"Because," Aphrodite says, still laughing, "you apparently don't understand just who it is you're talking to here." She's amused for now, giving Coraline the benefit of the doubt because of her youth, but that could change in the blink of an eye, if Coraline isn't very careful with what she says from here on out. "Believe me, I have no complaints whatsoever about the way Luke treats me. Do you really think I'd stand for it if I did?"

"Of course I do, you're Aphrodite you're brilliant but you're hardly well, um, modern." Coraline said before adding. "And Luke is very good at lying so he might have told you that's what modern girls do and stuff but it's not. We still like dates and things like that and you should have them. Luke should take you on a date properly."

Coraline made a face and then scrunched her nose up. "Maybe you wouldn't. But- don't you want to go on a date with Luke? He's really nice when he isn't being Luke."

"Coraline," Aphrodite says, and she's still smiling, but her voice takes on a warning tone. "Modern has nothing to do with it. I'm the expert on love, and that's eternal. Luke hasn't lied to me about anything or convinced me of anything, okay? It's not possible to lie to me when it comes to this stuff."

Aphrodite takes a breath. She knows Coraline is a stubborn teenager, but good grief. "No, I don't want to go on a date with Luke, sweet pea. I know he's nice. I like him when he's nice and I even like him when he's...being Luke. But we just don't have that kind of relationship."

"Well, why not?" Coraline asked curiously. "You like him and he likes you and you do um, stuff so why don't you go out on dates?"

"Because we're not dating," she explains patiently, still managing that much, at least. "It's like I said before, not everyone wants the same things. Luke and I don't want that kind of relationship. Neither of us is looking for something serious."

"How do you know unless you try? I mean, you could really, really want to date him and not know or he could really, really want to date you and neither of you would know because you never tried to date each other." Coraline said seriously. "So, you should date or you know go out on one date. Please, pretty please?"

"Coraline," Aphrodite warns again, but this time with more emphasis on the warning and less on being amused. "Listen to me. I know you mean well, and I'm glad Luke is your friend, but you need to stop. I've already explained way more about my actions than I normally would to a mortal, especially one your age, because I like you, but you're about to go too far."

"Um, are you going to smite me if I go too far?" Coraline asked, considering how far was too far. Smiting could possibly be okay if it was for Luke but if she was going to tell like Bill on her then Luke was on his own. "I just- I want him to be happy. I want you to be happy too. I don't see why people can't just... hold hands and do things properly like in the movies."

Aphrodite gives Coraline an 'oh, puh-leeze' look. "You need to brush up on your Greek pantheon, sweet pea, I don't smite people," she says, and then sighs.

"Because life isn't like the movies. And there is no one 'proper' way to do things," she says, putting air quotes around the word 'proper'. "Love and everything that goes with it is way more complicated than that."

"You could smite people, you could smite them with like Bad Love or like stuff I don't know. The Greek stuff is Percy's cup of tea," Coraline said making a face as she tried to explain what she meant. Coraline listened to Aphrodite curiously before giving her a hopeful look, followed by her patented Puppy Eyes. "But if love is complicated and stuff then maybe one day you might love him and want to date him? Because it's complicated, right?"

"Oooooooookay," Aphrodite says, drawing the word out. "Remember what I said just now about going too far? You really, really might want to quit while you're ahead here. I mean it."

"Okay," Coraline replied biting her lip as if she was desperate to ask just once more. Coraline brushed a hand through her hair, still not quite understanding the whole sex thing but well, grown ups were weird. She just hoped Johnny didn't have ideas, she was quite happy with hand holding and kissing and hugging. "So you don't want- okay, I won't ask. But if you change your mind or you want to talk about Luke to someone you know you can tell me just not the gross stuff."

"I'll keep that in mind," Aphrodite says, even though there is totally no way that is ever going to happen. If Aphrodite's ever going to talk to anybody about this stuff, and it's not very likely, it'll be Gabby.

"And hey, if you ever have questions about anything else, about love or sex or whatever you want to know, just ask and I'll totally talk to you about it, okay?" she adds. "Just not this. My love life is off limits."

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