While Ares 'braced himself for what was yet to come', Enyo embraced Ares to speed along what was about to come. Her intimate hugging was not born of pure intentions, Ares could feel it in his loins. Enyo ending things here? Now that she'd gotten a taste? This woman was a shark and there was blood in the water. Ares wasn't leaving this room just yet, that much was guaranteed. Things devolved rapidly into satiating carnal lust but there was one moment of playfulness in which, while Enyo was riding Ares, she and Bellona started bickering with one another in code language. All Ares could make of the situation was that they were disagreeing over who was doing which half of whatever it was they had planned. This led to a bit of physical back and forth as Enyo and Bellona kept jostling one another. It was all fun and games for them, and Ares was happy to see it... But he was seriously at risk here! Pushing Enyo around while she was on top of him was a health hazard to his nether region and an awful accident waiting to happen! He really didn't want his jolly roger's mast bent out of shape over something like this... Thankfully they reached a conclusion before angle mishaps came to be and Bellona left the lustful couple to finish what they were in the middle of.

Bellona's half of the work for today was actually really easy, and wouldn't take her longer than fifteen or so minutes to create it, but she did want to make multiple different flavours as well as get some taste testing done before Ares gave it a go... Ok, she was just being greedy! But she really liked the stuff she was making... It wasn't a main dish, nor was it a dessert, it was a type of drink she'd learnt about upon arriving at her previous sect. She'd been hooked since and was looking for an opportunity to get Ares to make some for her but then it occurred to her this was one of the few things she could make for him. She'd then started looking for opportunities to do as such but he always seemed too busy to drop it on him and the few moments he wasn't were hard to predict in advance. Today, however, would enable her to finally bring her plans to fruition and no amount of Enyo wanting to make Ares alcohol, get him drunk, and then have a fully blotto threesome was going to change that! Here Bellona was, pouring her heart out and taking this seriously... And then there was Enyo just trying to get in everyone's pants! Shameless! Bellona fought tooth and nail against the cowgirl although really it was a bit of an exaggeration as there was no way Enyo would ever actually steal this opportunity for such a daft reason. She'd mostly joked about it to get on Bellona's nerves and, credit where credit was due, she'd succeeded big time in that regard. There would be no alcohol and there would be no threesome! Those things could come at a later date and Bellona wasn't interested in rushing that far ahead. Just being comfortable with the status quo was good enough for now.

As for what Enyo was making, other than a mess of Ares right now, she was on main course duty. Bellona did know what dish she was making specifically and the trial runs so far had come out really good. Although she 'lied' to Ares earlier the truth of the matter was that she put a lot of effort into being able to make this happen... She very nearly did burn the house down while Ares was in the pagoda but he didn't need to know that... Bellona did her sister a solid and swore to keep it a secret. Her and Appa, the latter of which had been used like a sort of fire extinguisher at the time... A very cute and giggly fire hose... It was simple to operate Appa, just hold it and point the rope wherever you wanted the living hose to fire.

That was the worst of Enyo's attempts though and she had drastically improved since those early days with the assistance and guidance of Bellona. As for who'd taste tested the dishes, Rhea and Sadie were the two who were lucky / unlucky to find themselves chowing down. Unlucky because the first few creations were, honestly, sub par. Not inedible per se, just really bland and uninteresting. At that point Enyo might as well have picked up a rock in the back garden and tried feeding it to Ares instead... Lucky, though, because once her improvements became a steady stream the overall quality was something the two Legion gluttons could appreciate. Enyo's dish, unsurprisingly, was the kind of thing that went well with beer so that may have played a part in the Sadie and Rhea's eventual high praise.

Anyway, Enyo had succeeded and now could cook one singular dish to a pretty respectable level. In fact, she'd even gone over to Fixer's place and asked for some tips. When he realised Enyo was Ares' wife-pending Fixer smiled warmly and told her everything she wanted to know. Fixer had always liked Ares but that opinion probably cemented itself when Lizzy mentioned him and how he'd been helping her as of late. Plus not judging her for being a skrank lizzle was a nice added bonus to how he viewed Ares as not many people were willing to tolerate a race like them due to all sorts of historical mishaps. Point being Enyo's dish went from poor to great and, after Fixer got involved, from great to mouth watering. Sadie and Rhea in particular were very pleased. Although they outwardly encouraged Enyo to improve for the sake of 'love', their growling stomachs belied their true goal. With Rhea there actually was an element of pride buried deep beneath the surface as Enyo doing something traditionally womanly like making her husband food was something she honestly thought she would never see. Watching Enyo concentrate as she worked hard did make Rhea happy because it was a firm reminder that Enyo was living a good life now and free to do as she pleased. If the Enyo from a year ago knew she would be cooking a dish for the man she loved she would scoff in disbelief. Worse still Major would throw a fit and go on a rampage... Which he very well might do anyway once news of this situation inevitably reached him.

Grouch and all-around terrible human being aside, Enyo had her work cut out for her but she rose to the challenge and came out swinging. Now all that was left was for Ares to try it. Enyo had yet to show any joy on her face after her successes because only one person's opinion on it really mattered to her. Plus it was a birthday gift of all things so screwing it up... Enyo didn't want to imagine that horrendous situation. Ares would just pretend to like it and she would feel terrible for having botched things on a birthday of all days... Especially seeing as how Bellona would almost definitely get her end of the deal spot on. She wasn't necessarily making anything hard so a lot of the pressure here was on Enyo. Although if she was too busy rolling around in the hay with Ares to come and prepare then maybe she was feeling confident? Or maybe that was just something that helped fer feel more confident? Given her pleasure affinity it wouldn't be too surprising if such a thing was possible. Maybe doing the deed calmed her down in more ways than one in a sort of 'post-nut' clarity kind of way? That remained to be seen and it wasn't anything Bellona was going to dwell on right now as she had more interesting things to be doing.

As Ares wasn't going to work on anything today, as he would be dragged out of the cultivation room immediately if he even so much as tried, he indulged himself to his heart's content by playing around with Enyo. Usually he would have found an opportunity to sneak away from her at some point and get back to whatever pile of work needed doing but seeing as how today was a 'take it easy' kinda day he stuck around in the bedroom for a bit longer.

An hour or so later, Ares and Enyo did leave the room eventually and, as he came into the living room, he found Calla happily hugging Appa on one of the seats. When Calla saw Ares, she plopped Appa down, stood up, and dashed across the room to give him a hug. "Who's a cute widdle birthday boy?!"

... Ares almost physically recoiled from the baby language but, then again, this was just who his mother was. Her tail was spiralling out of control and she was clearly more invested in his birthday than he was! Although her constantly muttering something about him being a 'big and fluffy boy' did raise a number of questions in Ares head, one of which he decided to actually ask aloud. "Have you been around the pagoda lately?" Depending on the answer, a significant portion of the questions brewing in the back of his mind would be answered then and there.

Calla stopped smothering Ares and gave two energetic nods. "Mhm. You were a bigggggg wolfy! Very very big. Very very fluffy! I kinda want to get Margaret to paint you and have a portrait up in the house. I want one of all my babies in their revenant forms but a lot of them have never gotten that far. Scar did before he killed himself to come down here and look after his siblings but I want the best of the best to paint my babies and Margaret was unavailable at the time... Maybe I'll give her some specialty coffee beans as a bribe, that ought to incentivise her to work on my request. And if it doesn't, I'll just bite her leg off! That'll spook the bitch!"

"You know, I forget how evil you can be sometimes... Anyway, my clone really did get to try out the revenant form then? I'll admit I'm a bit jealous. What was it like?"

"Very very big and very very fluffy!"

"... I seem to recall you having already said that..."

"I said it twice because saying it once didn't do it justice!" Calla puffed up her chest like she'd just made an irrefutable point and, in her own little world, maybe she did. Ares disagreed but he also realised this was probably the best answer he was going to get out of her. Regardless, her reaction, cryptic though it was, did inspire confidence in Ares. She seemed proud of his revenant form and though that was to be expected, it seemed to be quite excessive. Clearly, based on how Calla was acting, his revenant form was a big deal and that just made him want to go into the back garden and use a Canis Stimulant even more than he already did... "Ah but the only way to truly do it justice is to see it first hand. You'll get a chance to soon so don't worry!" Calla gave Ares a wink that somewhat soothed his urge to experiment with the stimulant. Whatever she was plotting, she wasn't lying at least and Ares didn't even need his lie detector to figure that out. Calla would never lie to her babies, that was almost definitely an unforgivable sin in her eyes so that option was ruled out entirely. This did make Ares curious as to why he would transform soon but if Calla was going to be upfront with him about it she would have done it already so he just had to wait and see. She clearly knew about this for some time but only brought it up now because it was relevant both to the conversation at hand and because the actual scenario she was aware of would come up soon. This sneaky woman was plotting! Actually, why were all the women around Ares plotting as of late?! He'd been gone for roughly a week and suddenly he was out of the loop on everything! He really couldn't take his eyes of these lot...

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Well he didn't want to take his eyes off them but when Enyo and Calla slunk into the kitchen they barred him from also entering as that would spoil whatever surprises they had in store for him. Ares understood this and didn't want to get in their way... But he also really wanted to make sure they weren't starting any fires... Patience was a difficult virtue but one Ares managed to possess for the next few hours even if he got a tad fidgety during that time. He sat around and chatted with anyone who happened across him in the living room, be it Appa or anyone from the Aejaz side of things. The only person living in this house he didn't speak with was Leo but that wasn't because either of them were avoiding each other or anything, the tiger just seemed to be elsewhere today. Ares had no clue what the tiny bastard was up to but it probably wasn't anything good knowing him! He might have even been taking a dump on Charity's lawn...

The first surprise for Ares today was his mother making him a hot chocolate! She'd been looking for a chance to make one for him, like Bellona, and now was as good a time as any so, while he waited patiently for the lunch his wives were cooking, he eyed up the hot chocolate that had been placed before him. According to Fate, who'd mentioned the hot chocolate in passing back during the banquet, this was a special drink. Calla owned a bunch of cacao tree treasures that produced the finest quality beans accessible anywhere in these lower domains, It wasn't even a contest. Terros himself had been relatively impressed when he spotted them for the first time as they were the kind of treasures that would be considered hyper rare even in the middle realms. Calla owning one was a stroke of incredible luck and one she was grateful for as it meant she could serve her babies some of the greatest hot chocolates not just on her planet, but across a large portion of the entire universe. Obviously there were professional chefs who had better recipes and techniques at their disposal but, in terms of ingredient quality, Calla was definitely splurging on the good stuff. She could sell the beans for exorbitant prices if she so chose but she kept literally all of them for her babies without exception... Almost without exception, anyway. If the other matriarchs were having a special occasion, like a birthday or a wedding or whatever, then and only then would Calla be willing to share. She was a bit stingy in that regard but she valued the cacao trees immensely and was hesitant to waste them. God forbid one of her litter wanted a hot choco after a stressful day and she had none left! As for the hot choco in question, Calla also mixed in some marshmallows for everyone other than Venus who was adamant she didn't like the texture it resulted in. She didn't mind the taste, and even admitted it made for a marked improvement, but the thickness of the drink after wasn't to her liking. Every other child swore by the marshmallow addition though so they were a staple. Calla had experimented here and there with other flavours, like mint or caramel, but the classic was almost always the preference and so that was what she made for Ares today. Of course she already knew what his reaction would be thanks to the pagoda clone but that didn't stop her from swaying contentedly side to side when he picked up the cup, took a sip, and let out a refreshed 'ahhhh' after tasting the warm and soothing beverage.

As the drink was produced from a treasure, it wasn't as simple as just tasting delicious. Of course it definitely did but there were other added benefits like calming the mind, removing poisons or curses that were weak in nature, granting a temporary strength boost, restoring energy and some mana, and improving cultivation speed for the next 24 hours. Some of those would be wasted if the hot chocolate was drunk casually but Calla didn't give a toss as her babies' satisfaction was more important than trivial efficiency. That wasn't to say it was never relevant though as sometimes her children, when close to a breakthrough, did ask for a hot chocolate to aid them in improving their cultivation. It simplified the process and could be a real life saver if they got stuck for whatever reason. Clearing their mind with a warm drink and trying again, this time winding up more successful in their endeavour, was a somewhat common occurrence in the Umbra household. The only other thing of note regarding these hot chocolates was that Aster very commonly tried to steal them from his children because he was a sucker for them too and Calla was very strict with how many he was allowed. Sometimes he would make off like a bandit after successfully swiping the drink from under his kids' noses, sometimes they would catch him in the act and shoo him off, or, worst of all, sometimes Calla would catch him and then his fate was all but sealed. Melting his lower body with poison and putting him on a stake outside for all to see was the laziest of Calla's punishments for the disobedient wolf so one could only imagine what other forms of disciplining she resorted to away from the eyes of the public.

A short while after finishing the hot chocolate, it seemed the sisters were done with their dishes and were ready to bring them out. Apparently Enyo had made a lot of food and it was shaping up to be more of an early dinner but she wanted to go whole hog so there was no stopping her. Ares didn't much mind because he could just make something simple later on and he could always share his food with the others if it was really way too much. Enyo and Bellona came out into the living room and placed the dishes on the table and took their seats while Ares got a look at what was on offer. More than even the taste of what he was going to eat, he was curious about what they'd chosen to make. He didn't really have any strong preferences so seeing the kind of stuff they thought he'd enjoy was interesting in its own right.

The first thing that caught Ares' eye was Bellona's drink, a brown sugar bubble tea. A clever choice for sure. It was novel, something Bellona enjoyed and wanted to share the joy of with Ares, wasn't too difficult to make, and was pretty much guaranteed to taste really good. Ares had never had bubble tea before but it was on his list of things he was excited to try so this ended up being a perfect choice on Bellona's half. As for the flavour, it was absolutely the kind of thing he would have went for had he any choice in the matter. Whether this was Bellona accidentally hitting the jackpot or her putting serious thought into Ares' taste palate he didn't know but she'd hit the nail on the head regardless! Plus there was more good news in that Bellona had maybe gone a bit overboard and made tens of variations of bubble tea and had them all stored in the fridge. It was a lot but it also meant anyone could go and have one whenever they were in the mood. Of course Bellona had actually made these all for selfish reasons as she was incredibly partial to them. Ares decided he would pay the fridge a little later and get a taste of one of the fruitier bubble teas to get a feel for what kind of beverage he was dealing with so he could add it to his repertoire later.

Ares was very much enjoying the sensation of the tea and, given that both he and Bellona were fond of it, it meant that learning how to make it was a task that now found itself squarely on his ever-growing to do list. It would be worth it though. Ares' contentment with the drink, and his 'oohing' and 'aahing' as he savoured the flavour made Bellona somewhat embarrassed but also pleased. She was glad he found the appeal of something she herself was smitten with as it was the kind of connection she liked having with Ares. She enjoyed chatting with him about magic and various other points of interest they both agreed on or liked so having one more conversation topic was great. They could sample all sorts of bubble tea together and share their drinks like a happy couple so Bellona breathed a sigh of relief. Also, watching him eagerly take more and more sips with a smile on his face, knowing she'd created the thing that he was currently enamoured with, was a wonderful feeling and she now understood why Ares took so much pride in his own ability to cook. It wasn't arrogance at being good at it, although that played a small part in the back his mind somewhere no doubt, it was primarily the satisfaction of seeing a loved one be fond of the fruits of your labour. It was a new experience for Bellona who'd never really made anything for anyone before so, although she wouldn't be open about it because she wasn't the type to be casually sentimental about feelings and what not, she would treasure the memory at least.

Then there was Enyo's dish... And Ares had to admit, it looked absolutely scrumptious. Mouth wateringly good was an understatement as it took his all to not dig in like a pig without manners. He'd sampled Bellona's side of things first because he knew that once he got stuck in with Enyo's dish he probably wasn't going to want to stop anytime soon. She'd made toasted pitas with various meats in them and each and every one looked juicy. They were dripping and Ares knew biting into them would result in an explosion of flavour that was only going to spur him on to keep eating... Maybe Enyo was right to make as much as she had as the spiced lamb, ground beef, and chicken donner options were all luring Ares in and it was looking more and more likely with each passing second he was going to fall for the temptation and just eat it all. Fixer's mark had clearly been left as the pitas were all filled to the brim and bursting with ingredients. Ares could feel his mouth watering so he started chowing down with gusto and glee. It was well and truly a fantastic dish and Enyo could seriously hold her head high after having created it.

Ares found time between his chomps to compliment Enyo and Bellona for their hard work before throwing himself back headfirst into the food. Enyo was easily the person with the widest of smiles right now as she felt the same way Bellona did but just twice as much. All the time she'd put into perfecting the dish was worth it a million times over to see her lover revelling in her food. So much so she wanted to make it again for him for dinner, upon hearing which Ares chuckled and simply nodded. If she wanted to make more for him he wasn't going to say no. Having that much in one day was obviously not good but he was a cultivator, and typically a pretty active one at that, so the health detriments were non-existent in the long run. He didn't want to spoil the immeasurable fun she was having feeding Ares so she could do it to her heart's content today. Actually, it meant Ares himself didn't have to cook today at all as Enyo could simply make some for everyone and, hey presto, that was dinner sorted. Ares would have shared his lunch with the sisters otherwise but, now that Enyo was on dinner duty and already heading back to the kitchen, he simply sat on his laurels and took advantage of the fact that today he really didn't have to do anything. No cultivation, no forgery or runemancy work, no cooking, no sorting out relationship issues. Today was the most peaceful day he'd had in a long time and for that reason alone he was thoroughly pleased with his birthday. He didn't need gifts or a fancy party or anything, just spending some down time with his loved ones in the comfort of his home was good enough. Chilling on the couch with his wives by his side as they all laughed and had a great time eating home cooked food and personally crafted drinks was better than 'good enough', actually, it was all Ares really wanted out of life.