"Hello uncle Zeus! Who is this handsome young man?" The young woman asked with a devious smile.

The old man's eyes widened in surprise and he quickly spun around to look at the intruder.

"Persephone, why are you here!?"

The girl ignored the old man as she ran around the table to stand in front of Alex with a delighted grin, making a rough triangle shape between the three of them.

"He's no Ganymede(1), so is he one of your sons? Should I call him half-brother? It sounded like you two were talking about some pretty dangerous stuff." Persephone said with a playful smile.

Neither the old man nor Alex could get a word in until Persephone stopped talking. The old man kept flinching with each of her sentences and sweat started to form on his forehead as his eyes filled with dread. Finally, the old man couldn't take her teasing anymore.

"Persephone! How long have you been here!?" He said with impatient anger.

Persephone's smile became more sinister after getting such a reaction out of the old man. Alex could only watch with growing confusion.

"Is that the tone you should take with me right now father? Maybe I saw the whole thing and might accidentally mention this to a couple people." She said with barely hidden elation at having caught the old man in a compromising position.

"You wouldn't.?" The old man said as half a question and the rest a hopeful statement. "You know how much trouble that could cause right now."

The victory smile on her face finally dimmed a bit before she said, "Relax uncle, I'm just here hiding from mom. She's been extra protective and overbearing these days. I wouldn't really cause trouble. but rather than that, who is this guy really? What is your relationship with him?" Her teasing tone had become more relaxed with only a hint of its former playfulness.

"He's... Ah... He is... my son. Yes, he's my son Alexander." The old man was still stumbling a bit internally over this unwelcome surprise and complication. He figured there'd be less danger in claiming Alex as his son compared to revealing how he'd brought a normal mortal into their godly realm.

Upon hearing the old man claim him as his son, Alex's brain finally started working well enough for him to contribute to the odd conversation.

"Who's your son!?" He asked with indignation.

Unfortunately, Alex still hadn't thought fast enough to adapt to the situation and ruined the old man's efforts at explaining the circumstances. To this Persephone giggled a bit and hid her smile in a futile attempt to disguise the fact that she found Alex somewhat charming. She thought he might make a good plaything, nice for some amusement during a slow afternoon. Like an affectionate puppy or a fuzzy kitten. Her poor turtles tended to die after being rolled down the streets and usually stayed in Hades.

The old man could only turn to glare at Alex for his idiocy before he focused on Persephone once again.

"You really won't tell anyone? You promise?" He asked to confirm her intentions right away.

"Don't worry, I won't cause you any trouble. Just let me hide here whenever I want okay? Besides, we all have enough to worry about these days."

It was at this time when the tension had finally left the room that Alex remembered what Persephone had called the old man.

"Wait, did she call you Zeus?"

Both Persephone and Zeus looked over at him with grim expressions.

"Yes, I am Zeus." The old man confirmed for Alex.

Alex frowned. "I thought you were God." He felt cheated as if he ended up somewhere that he wasn't supposed to be. It was as if he was lost luggage that ended up in Australia instead of in London with its owner.

"I'm king of the gods." Zeus said with an indignant frown of his own.

"No, I mean..." Alex was interrupted when Persephone took him by the arm and forcefully dragged him away toward the other end of the room.

She was a little shorter than Alex so she had to pull him down while tightly entangling his arm with her own as she warned him. "If you were about to say you thought he was the Christian God, just stop. If you actually say you mistook him for Jesus or God to his face, he would likely lose his temper and rant at you for days over all that happened because of Christianity."

Persephone had taken Alex into the hallway as she led him out of earshot of the old man.

"What do you mean?"

"You really are from Earth then?" Persephone asked as if confirming her suspicions before she continued to explain.

"I don't know how much you know about what happened in the past but when Christianity started to take over, Zeus wanted to fight back. But he was prevented from going to war and forced to step down by Gaia and Nyx."

Alex was fascinated by what he was hearing and let her continue without interruption.

"When Zeus wanted to go to war with the Christians and their army of angels, Hecate foretold that the conflict would exhaust the Olympians and devastate the Earth and its human inhabitants. Zeus ignored her and started his preparations anyway but then Gaia and Nyx arrived with foreboding news about a conflict that would soon embroil their entire region of the god commons. They forbade Zeus from wasting their resources trying to keep his hold on Earth when their homes in the commons were at risk. Zeus was still dead-set on fighting to keep his power regardless when Athena walked up and gave her counsel. She said that if Zeus graciously left Earth to its own devices rather than drench humanity in bloodshed while fighting against Christianity that the Olympians would still have an honored place within the heart of man and wouldn't be forgotten. She said that if he fought that he and the rest of the pantheon would be demonized by Christian propaganda and would forever lose their place on Earth."

Persephone paused for breath at this point and allowed Alex to absorb what he'd just heard before she continued.

"Zeus was always willing to listen to Athena's words but when he heard what she had to say, he was still thinking of fighting for his Earthly dominion. But Nyx stepped in with an ultimatum and declared that she'd unseat Zeus herself if he still wanted to play the God King over Earth. Then Athena took charge of the conversation again and consoled her father that even if they were mostly forgotten by man, there would still come a day when humanity would look back and give respectful homage and worship to the gods of their past."

Persephone let out a long sigh before her eyes followed Alex's bare chest down to the rest of his naked body. Alex hadn't realized that he was completely naked this whole time and took a moment to react after following Persephone's staring eyes.

"There's nothing to be ashamed about." Persephone laughed as Alex tried his best to cover his dignity with his hands.

"Why? Why am I naked? Where are my clothes?" He screamed while whispering out of embarrassment as he bent forward in an attempt to hide the rest of his nakedness from her.

Persephone was all grins as she looked on at his cute behavior. She was no longer as innocent as she was when Hades first took her for his wife.

"Here, take my shawl and tie it around your waist." She decided to take mercy on him and offered her thin shawl with a tinge of a blush on her cheeks. It had been a while since she last saw a man so naked right before her eyes and even then, it was an older man she was with at the time and his rugged body didn't have the same glowing youth that Alex's body still shined with.

Thoroughly embarrassed, Alex didn't have any more room for complaints about Zeus's identity as he was led back to the room.

Zeus was busy working on something with his hands at the table when the two came back. Persephone was the first to speak again.

"If Alex was a claimed soul, what were you thinking bringing him here?" She asked, referring to the fact that Alex was a Christian soul and not one of their own worshipers. "You must realize how many of the rules that you once enforced that you are now breaking with this?"

Zeus's hands stopped fiddling with the necklace he was etching on and he looked up to meet her eyes.

"I have my reasons, daughter. Chief among them is that the boy is an anomaly. He was not a deity at the time but was still able to resist my will in my own space and this was after his soul kept escaping the other god's domains to appear before me time and time again. I don't have to ask the fates to think that his being here might be for a reason. Now stop distracting me while I make this amulet for him."

"Where are my clothes?" Alex decided not to take the hint and bothered Zeus anyway.

The old man looked up and grinned at Alex. "There's nothing wrong with displaying a manly body. You should be proud!"

Alex kept staring at him without amusement.

"You weren't actually wearing clothes since you first appeared before me. Those garments your soul was wearing were just projections of your own mind thinking you were still clothed."

Zeus saw that Alex still wasn't following so he explained further.

"I could have reforged your soul with them on but then your god's body would be stuck wearing them perhaps for forever. They'd be the same, no, they would be a part of your body in this realm. I did you a favor by excluding them. At least now you can get naked and show off to all the girls and impress the guys." He said with a big grin while reminiscing on some fun times.

Zeus then looked at Persephone's shawl around Alex's waist.

"Besides, walking around town early in the morning with nothing but a woman's shawl hiding your junk is just more proof of your manhood. You'll have the right sort of reputation in no time." Zeus laughed clearly in a better mood than he'd been in.

Persephone cleared her throat and Zeus hid his smile again.

"If there's any trouble over the ownership of his soul, I'll handle it." He told her with conviction to ease her worry.

Persephone finally let out her breath showing that she'd stop pursuing the matter but brought up another point.

"But what should we do about him, uncle?" She emphasized the word him, "The other gods are going to want to know who this stranger is if he's going to be hanging around you from now on."

Zeus thought for a moment and nodded.

"We'll just hint that he is one of my progeny. You guys all call me uncle for a reason and the other gods will just assume he's the same and not look into it any further. As long as he stays clear of Hera, there shouldn't be any trouble."

"Why do you call him uncle and sometimes father?" Alex was confused about the whole uncle thing and leaned over to ask Persephone about it.

"Oh, he's really my father but me and his other children just tend to call him uncle to avoid rubbing his infidelity in Hera's face in order to soothe her jealousy. Its kind of an informal understanding we all have between us. Besides, Zeus hasn't been much of a father to any of us besides Athena maybe. She is his favorite after all."

Alex was taken aback. He hadn't learned much about Greek mythology before. He only knew what he'd seen in bits and pieces here and there. Now he was right in front of Zeus the ancient god-king himself.

"Should I really be calling Zeus my uncle?"

"What's wrong about it? Calling him uncle doesn't really feel strange at all does it?"

Alex had to nod in agreement after thinking about it for a moment.

"Hmm, this makes us half-siblings then. Even if it's not really being related by blood, you are still my adopted brother from now on." Persephone said with some glee.

She couldn't contain her smile at the thought of having a new friend to play with... and to torture when the mood struck her. She was already hatching plots and pranks to involve him in.

Zeus, on the other hand, could only continue to worry about her knowing about Alex's origins. If he were to put Persephone and Aphrodite together in the same room, they would vie for the label of the biggest gossip among the gods. He cringed at the knowledge where that very situation could really come to be. Before long, he had finished making the protective amulet for Alex to wear.

"Here, wear this at all times, Alex. Your god's body is still very new and still very weak. This amulet contains some of my power to protect you and to declare you as my attendant. Wear it with honor."

Zeus handed the amulet over and watched Alex hang it around his neck.

"There used to be mortals that would kill each other or even raze entire cities to the ground for a chance to be recognized by me." Zeus said after watching the light glint off the copper surface bearing his symbol.

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(1) Ganymede was a mortal male so pretty that Zeus abducted him to have him serve as his cup bearer and sometimes more depending on the version of the legend nudge nudge wink wink say no more.