Accord strolled along, lifting his face to feel the warmth beaming down from above. He loved the sun, and he had to be so careful. If he was in the direct sunlight only a few minutes longer than the time limit his parents had set, he ended up pink and uncomfortable. It wasn't fair. His father, Joxer, was almost as pale as he was, and Strife was a LOT whiter than he was, but neither of them had to worry so much about sunburn. Maybe he could talk to Uncle Apollo about some sort of ointment to prevent it.

He sighed. Probably not. Things between Dad Ares and Apollo weren't all that mellow. Oh, there wasn't out-and-out hostility, but Accord knew that Ares watched Apollo closely whenever he was around Joxer. Joxer and Ares wouldn't talk about it, but Accord knew exactly where to go in a case like that. Strife was more than happy to inform him. "No biggie, kiddo. It's just that when ya dad first came ta Olympus, Bright Boy was takin care of him. He got an eye-full... Ya do know that Joxie is hung like..."

"I try not to think about things like that, Strife," Accord had interrupted.

Strife had shrugged cheerfully. "Anyways, it was nothin but stare, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, an' maybe one lil grope, but Ares ain't eveh been good about sharin."

"Like certain other members of the House of War?" Strife had just grinned.

As he walked, Accord felt his center of gravity tilting a little, the surface under his left food narrowing by a hair. He automatically corrected himself, his walk never slowing. A brisk breeze blew across his path, causing the dark strands of hair that had escaped his braid to whip across his face. He raked them out of his eyes, and decided that now was the time to end his walk.

He hopped to the side, landing on the roof of the temple. The moment his feet hit the solid surface, a voice below roared, "About fucking time!"

He winced, then went and peered over the waist high wall he'd been walking along, fingers curved easily over the narrow surface. "Hi, Dad."

Ares glared up at his son. "The only reason I didn't yell the minute I saw you is that I was worried you'd be startled, and fall the wrong way, and break your fool neck. You know how long that takes to heal. Get down off the roof--now."

Calming angry people to the point where they could see reason might be part of his godhood, but Accord knew better than to hesitate or try to explain why his father shouldn't be upset that his son had been walking on a narrow wall, over fifty feet in the air. He went to the square hole in the center of the roof, and climbed down the ladder that was propped against the rim. Once he was on the floor inside, he unhooked the ladder and laid it against the hall's wall, then tugged on the rope hanging before him till the trap at the top shut.

For a moment he considered going to his room, or even just disappearing for a little while, but he knew that far from cooling down, that would just make Ares angrier. He started down to the family room, hoping that Joxer, his birth father would be there. Maybe if he was, Ares wouldn't be quite so tempted to lace into his errant son. Joxer being the God of Peace didn't really figure into it. Joxer didn't use his godhood on his loved ones, not except to avert imminent physical danger (and that was occasionally an issue, given the tangled family politics on Olympus). Still, Joxer's mere presence often had a soothing effect on Ares.

Joxer was sitting at the table peering at a stack of small, stiff parchments sitting before him. He was turning them over, studying each one. Accord came up behind him, looping an arm around his neck. Joxer turned his head and smiled back at him, reaching up to pat his arm before he went back to his studying. "What are those?"

"They're called 'cards'. Strife brought them back from the Halls of Time. He claims that they're going to be even bigger in gambling than dice."

"What do you do with them?"

"I'm not sure. I think you have to collect certain sets. See? Some of them have people on them. Here's a king, with his crown."

"Which king?"

"I don't know. Any king, I guess."

Accord went and sat in a chair beside him. Propping his elbows on the table, he put his chin in his hands. "What are the spots on them?"

"Well, the red ones are hearts and diamonds, and the black ones are, uh, spades and clubs."

Accord picked up one of each of the black suits. "Really? That doesn't look like a very good spade. They usually have rounded, or squared off edges, don't they? And I guess they have three headed clubs, but it doesn't seem very efficient." He looked at it closer, then grinned. "It looks a little like the paw print Scribe's cats leave when they walk across her fresh scrolls and get ink on their feet. Boy, does she cuss."

"Speaking of cursing, I heard a shout from outside a minute ago. What have you done now to upset your father?"

Accord rolled his eyes. "Nothing."

"Cord."

Accord sighed. That single syllable was so patient. *Why do I even try? I know I can't keep anything from him.* "Not much. I was just taking a walk."

"Uh-huh. Hasn't Ares told you not to walk on top of the garden wall?"

"I didn't."

Joxer stopped scrambling the cards, and looked at his son. His eyes narrowed. "Where?"

"You know, this isn't fair. Imp can get away with murder because she can pull the wool over Cupid's eyes, and sometimes even Strife."

"That's because subterfuge is part of her nature. Jealousy has a lot to do with machinations and secrecy. But honesty is part of your nature, and you just can't really lie--not about anything important."

"Walking on the roof edge is important?" Accord clapped his hand over his mouth when he realized that he'd just told on himself.

"The roof? No wonder Ares was yelling." Accord quickly used his best tactic. He made his eyes large and pleading. "Don't try that with me, young man. I'm the one you learned it from."

Ares stalked into the room. "Do you know what our son has done now?"

"Yes. He just confessed. It was by accident, but I suppose it counts."

Ares came over to where Accord was sitting, and stood over him, glaring down. "How many times have I told you not to do that?"

"Actually," said Accord, "you haven't." He started ticking off on his fingers. "You've told me not to walk on the garden wall, not to walk along the drop off to earth, and not to walk on the railing of the barge when Charon takes me over to visit Hades, but you've never told me not to walk along the roof rim, so I..."

"You know what I mean!" Ares took a deep breath, and his voice was calmer when he next spoke. "Accord, granted that there isn't much that can kill a god, but we can be hurt, even damaged. Think about Hephastus. Would you want to end up crippled?" His voice lowered even more, and he gestured toward Joxer. "Would you want to do that to your father, or me?"

Accord looked down at the floor, chastened. "I'm sorry, Dad. I just wasn't thinking about that."

Joxer reached over and gently patted his shoulder. "You're young--you wouldn't. But you're getting older now, Accord. Your father and I will never cease to protect you, but you're going to have to at least start taking some responsibility for yourself. You know that you have to be punished for this." Accord nodded, resigned.

"Grounded for one month," said Ares.

"Daaad."

"Don't whine at me. It would have taken that long for you to heal up if you'd fallen."

"I think that's a little harsh," said Joxer.

"Yeah, harsh," Accord agreed. "How about one week?"

Ares stared at him, arms crossed, fingers tapping on his arms. "How about one day?"

Accord brightened. "Yeah, that sounds fair. I'll stay home..."

"Tonight. It begins now."

Accord's expression fell. "But Dad! I'm supposed to sleep over at Bliss's place tonight! Aphrodite is having Imp and Polly over for a slumber party, and we're gonna crash, and drive them crazy. We've been planning this for a week."

"Too bad. You wouldn't have been able to go if you'd fallen off the roof, would you?"

Accord looked at Joxer, but Joxer said, "Nope. It's fair, and you agreed to it. If you miss something you were really looking forward to, maybe you'll think twice next time."

"This is bogus!"

Ares blinked. "What?"

"I learned it from Strife."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"It means that it's unfair."

Ares shrugged. "Son, whatever gave you the idea that life was fair?"

"Can't I take the week instead?"

"Only," said Joxer, "if as well as remaining in your room, you have no visitors."

Accord gave him a wounded look. Finally he said, "Can I at least go tell Bliss why I can't stay over tonight?" Joxer looked at Ares, who nodded. "Thanks." Accord walked toward the door.

"Don't hang around," Ares warned. "Go there, tell him, and come back." Accord left without replying. "I think I'm being snubbed, and am I wrong, or was that 'thanks' sarcastic?"

"You weren't wrong. But he's a teenager, Ares. He wouldn't be normal if he wasn't a little difficult. We've had it easy so far."

Ares took the chair that Accord had vacated. "I know. I raised Strife, remember? Gods, I didn't think either of us would survive his puberty." He silently watched as Joxer arranged the cards into overlapping piles. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to figure out how to play with these things. I couldn't keep track of what Strife said they do with them in the future. You know how fast he can talk when he gets going."

Ares looked at Joxer (who had been known to babble on occasion) fondly. "Yeah."

"Anyway, he was talking about straights, and I've laid them as straight as I can, but I don't see the point in it." He pulled a goblet over to him, turned it upside down, and laid one card carefully on top of it.

"What's that?"

"That's a straight," Joxer pointed at the portrait card balanced on the glass, "with king high." Joxer very carefully propped four cards together, making a hollow square. He was concentrating so hard that his tongue poked out between his teeth. "Strife said something about a full house. Well, that looks like a house, but I don't know what it's supposed to be full of."

"Maybe the same thing Strife is full of?"

"But what's he full... Oh!"

Joxer threw the rest of the cards at Ares, who laughed. "You just keep walking into them, Jox." As Joxer began to gather the cards up, Ares said, "Accord has been spending a lot of time over at Cupid's temple."

"M-hm." Joxer started stacking the cards neatly.

"And he seemed really disappointed that he couldn't go torment Impetua tonight. Cupid complains all the time about how hard it is to get rid of the male 'I like her, so I'll make her miserable' mind set. Do you suppose that Accord has a crush on Impetua?" Ares was staring thoughtfully at the ceiling. He didn't notice the wry look that his husband threw him. "Not that I have anything against Impetua--hell, she's my grandchild. It's just that a romance between her and Accord might be a little awkward, don't you think?"

"Perhaps not as awkward as some," said Joxer quietly.

"So you don't think I need to worry about it?"

"No," said Joxer, honestly. "That's one thing I'm pretty sure you don't have to worry about."