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HOMER: As you now know, dear traveler, Arachne and Athena end up getting married. How they get there, though, is what we will be touching upon today. Come, sit, the fire is ready, the story even more so. Arachne and Athena are sitting beneath the stars, as they have many times since you last saw them.

ARACHNE: Did you think we’d ever get here?

ATHENA: Where? To the top of this hill? Because I told you, it’s a glorified hill, not a mountain–

ARACHNE: (laughing) That’s not what I mean and you know it you dick. Did you ever think we would get here. Sitting together watching the stars regularly, staying over at each other’s houses, spending all of our time together here. Being best friends, here. You know. All of that.

ATHENA: (sagely) Ah, the metaphorical here, not the literal. (pause) I hoped we would.

ARACHNE: You did?

ATHENA: Yeah. I was never sure, I mean, how could I be you know? Given where we started, getting here always felt impossible. I wanted it, I really really wanted it, but I never thought you’d– I didn’t think we’d– (pause, light self-deprecation) I guess I just didn’t think. 

ARACHNE: Thena…

ATHENA: I know what you’re gonna say–

ARACHNE: No, I don’t think you do. Because even if I’ve said time and time again that we’ve moved past our, frankly, abysmal start, you still don’t seem to grasp that. You don’t seem to understand that we’re friends and that I value you as a person, that I care about and love you–

ATHENA: That’s the thing, though! You don’t!

ARACHNE: (confused) I just said–

ATHENA: And you might think that you do! Or maybe you actually do, in your own way, but that’s not… Gods, I’m being so selfish right now. You’re here, telling me that you care about me and I’m just discounting it because– (catches himself) That’s not important. I’m being such a dick, I’m sorry, Arachne. Of course you care about me, I care about you too. I love you too. So much.

HOMER: The sadness in Athena’s eyes cut Arachne to her very core. She could see how hard he was trying to mask that sadness, how much he wanted to move on with a joke and pretend that none of this had happened. But Arachne also knew she couldn’t do that. She needed to know what her friend had meant– what her friend possibly thought he needed to keep hidden.

ARACHNE: You wanna tell me what all of that was about?

ATHENA: (deflective) Arachne–

ARACHNE: Nope, we’re not doing that. You’re not going to deflect or change the subject or make a joke. You’re not going to call yourself a dick or speak in circles that don’t make any sense. You’re going to talk to me. Because that’s what we do. Not talking got us into a whole mess of trouble when we first met. I refuse to go back to that; I will never let us go back to that. 

ATHENA: What do you want me to say, Arachne?

ARACHNE: I want you to tell me the truth. 

ATHENA: (hesitant) And if I can’t? If that truth risks too much?

ARACHNE: (genuine) There’s nothing you could say to me that would ever risk us, Thena. (pause, then attempting to lighten the mood) Unless, of course, you’re having an affair with Zeus. That would be a step too far.

ATHENA: (laughing) Gods, could you imagine? (joking) Hera finally left him, now is the perfect time to fill her space. (pause) Do you mean that?

ARACHNE: (joking) That you fucking Zeus would be a step to far? Of course. (pause) Of course I meant it, Athena. There’s nothing you could say that would break us. You turned me into a spider and we’re still best friends. If we can survive that, we can survive anything.

ATHENA: I… Gods, why is this so hard–

HOMER: The world seemed to shrink as Arachne laced her fingers with Athena’s. The stars continued to shine above them, but you would never have known they were there at all if you were Athena or Arachne; all that existed in that moment was the two of them. There were no stars in the sky, no soft grass beneath them, no breeze on the wind, nothing but the two of them and the feeling of their hands clasped together. 

ARACHNE: Your words don’t need to be perfect, Thena. They just need to be true. 

ATHENA: The truth is… The truth is I love you, Arachne. And I know what you’re going to say. “I just told you I love you and you started to spiral” and that’s true but it’s because we mean different things when we say that. When you say that you love me, you mean that we’re best friends and that you love spending time with me and that we’re always going to have each other. When I say I love you… When I say I love you, I mean that my world feels brighter with you in it. I mean you being away from me is like a physical ache. I mean that I want to stay with you forever, the same way that Hades and Persephone are. I mean that I love you, in every imaginable sense of the word. And that’s selfish of me. Because I’m discounting the fact that you love me in the way you do just because I want something else. That isn’t fair to you, to put this on you, to know that you’re… I was never supposed to tell you this. Gods, I was never supposed to tell you this, but you asked and I can’t lie to you. I don’t want to lie to you. So now you know.

HOMER: The world started to expand once again; slowly at first– the breeze hitting their faces as it had been but it was finally noticeable. The softness of the grass beneath their hands coming back into focus, lights starting to flicker back into the sky– they had never left, and yet it was like they were finally there again. Arachne started to unlace her fingers from Athena’s, his eyes falling closed because he couldn’t bear to see his dearest friend walk away. This, of course, meant he didn’t see it coming when Arachne threw her arms around him, tackling him to the floor as tears streamed down her cheeks.

ATHENA: (panicking) And I’ve made you cry. Gods, I made you cry, how did I–

ARACHNE: (firm but sweet) Stop talking.

HOMER: There are many ways to describe a kiss. Kisses can be gentle, they can be violent, they can be full of any and every emotion under the sun. The kiss shared between Arachne and Athena oozed with love and devotion. There was a softness to it that only first kisses have– a hesitance that speaks to nerves rather than a lack of desire. When the need to breathe became too much for both of them, Arachne pulled back, arms on either side of Athena’s head, holding her weight up so she wasn’t fully laying on top of the god below.

ARACHNE: Whatever way you want me to love you, Athena. That’s the way I do. If you want to go back to watching the stars and pretend that none of this happened, then we do that. If you want to kiss again, then we do that. If you want to stay together forever, in love and romantic and goopy, then we can do that too. Whatever you want, that’s what I want with you. When I asked if you ever thought we’d get here it’s because all I want is to be everywhere with you. To be everything with you. To get to love you until there is nothing left in this world. 

ATHENA: You mean that?

HOMER: Arachne leaned down to kiss Athena once again, smiling into the kiss as she went.

ARACHNE: Of course I mean that. And I’ll mean it every other time I tell you. I love you, Athena.

ATHENA: I love you, Arachne.

HOMER: With this, we shall close our story and leave the gods to their business. Thank you, traveler, for sitting with a weary storyteller. It’s been so long since I’ve had an audience like this, I forgot how much I missed it. Should you find yourself around a fire such as this again, ask for Homer; I may not appear physically, but I will provide you with all of the inspiration I can. Until then, traveler, thank you, as always, for listening.