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After Leo and Calypso finished their pep talk with Apollo, they left the library to retire for the night, leaving Apollo all by himself. (And with the Arrow of Dodona, perhaps.)
He stared at the doorway unconsciously, as if he were yearning for someone to enter it.
Apollo would never admit it, but, may the gods help him, he would miss Leo and Calypso after all this mess. Thinking about their adventures together made him realize that he had never done this with anybody other than his sister.
He eventually stopped staring at the doorway like a madman and stared at the book in front of him instead.
He tried to focus on his task at hand. Reading scrolls, books, and even trying to wrangle some information out of the Arrow of Dodona. Not exactly in that order. However, instead of focusing on the problem at hand, his thoughts quickly drifted to the Waystation.
Oh, he’s going to miss this place so much.
It wasn’t like Olympus. It didn’t have any extravagant buildings, heavenly designs, luxurious seats, or gold furniture. And if he was being honest? Apollo was thankful for that. Not that he hated Olympus, far from that! (Maybe.) To him, the Waystation just held something more… Homey. Cozy, even. Yes, Olympus was his home, but it felt good to just get away from it.
Even the Sun Palace never held this kind of feeling. The feeling of a warm, cozy place that you call home.
Thinking about home made him remember Camp Half-Blood. Apollo wondered how his children and the other campers were doing, he had to thank Paolo for his Brazilian bandana. After all, it worked wonders when he was in the myrmeke nest, but he still won’t tell Paolo about the possibility of the bandana having magical properties.
Speaking of bandanas…
Lityerses leaned at the doorway where Apollo was staring before. He looked like he was thinking deeply, wondering what to say to the fallen god.
Eventually, he found the words to say.
“Mind if I join you?” He asked, earning a surprised look from Apollo.
He turned to face Lityerses like a proper person should, “I’m not doing anything, though,” he said. But then Apollo luckily realized how stupid that sounded, so he quickly added, “But sure, you can join me.”
Lityerses smiled as he took the seat beside Apollo.
As he sat down, he eyed the Arrow of Dodona suspiciously, which was lying on the same table where he and Apollo were sitting. “Why is that here?” He pointed to it.
The sun god grinned, “Just a talking arrow, nothing unusual.”
“I’ve seen many more stranger things in Greece.”
Apollo snorted, “That’s something both of us can agree on.”
Apollo took in the face of Lityerses for a hot minute. The dim light of the lamp he had set up for reading fitted Lityerses well, and the ostrich scar he had received from their first meeting seemed to finally fade, which made his facial features a lot more endearing than they used to be.
But then again, he did find Lityerses endearing ever since that dream.
Luckily for him, Lityerses didn’t notice the obvious staring from Apollo. “Why are you up so late?”
An unexpected question, but Apollo answered it anyway. “Trying to get information about the Cave of Trophonius, and honestly? I’m starting to give up.” He sighed and slumped into his chair.
The swordsman propped up his elbows on the table and rested his face on his palm, then he looked at Apollo. “I can’t really offer any advice for that. But if there's nothing you can do about it, it's better to leave it alone,” said Lityerses. “There are many more important things to do other than trying to do the same thing over and over again, knowing that no results can be found.”
“What if there's nothing more important than this?” Apollo asked, already mentally hitting his head in his thoughts for accidentally making the question spill out of his mouth.
“I’m pretty sure there is. Like, for example, resting.” Lityerses said, which Apollo had to admit, was a pretty good comeback. “You need to rest, Lester. I mean, you have to go to that cave at first light.” Why is it always first light? Apollo internally questioned nobody, “And rest is a lot more important than wasting your time looking for something that’ll never be found.”
He was right, of course. There was nothing about the Cave of Trophonius that could help him in this damned library, except for a few scrolls and a few attempts of wrangling more information from the Arrow of Dodona. Apollo was tired. It was one in the morning, his eyes were starting to betray him, and he was feeling a bit giggly, which was a sign of doom (or exhaustion).
But he pushed himself and his eyes to stay awake and replied to Lityerses.
“Are you saying I shouldn’t cry over spilled milk?” Apollo asked. “That would’ve been a lot easier to say than all of that.”
Lityerses raised a brow, “I’m not familiar with that term…” Then, he looked down at the table. “But I guess so.”
Apollo smiled, “I do have to admit, you’re right, Lit.”
He gently closed the book and slid it across the table, then he propped up his elbows on the table, taking the same position Lityerses also had. He faced him and asked, “Now, why are you up so late?”
The former prefect froze for a while, shocked by the sudden change of view he had in front of him. He blinked once, twice, and thrice before recovering from the shock and answered. “ I wanted to ask you a question.”
“Ask away.”
Lityerses looked from side to side, clearly hesitating.
Apollo couldn’t blame him. After all, the events earlier were quite horrifying. The hunters were so close to murdering him in cold blood, no, almost everyone wanted to kill him or kick him out of The Waystation. Thankfully, Emmie defended him.
Finally, Lityerses asked his question.
“Why didn’t you just leave me, and... let Commodus kill me?”
Apollo thought about it for a moment. Truth to be told, he didn’t know why he helped Lityerses. He tried to kill him and Calypso back at the Indianapolis zoo, and he also tried to kill Leo in Omaha. The son of Hephaestus absolutely hated his guts for that.
Second chances weren’t his thing. He would just rather set the mortal, or anyone, who wronged him on fire. When he was a god, of course (not as a mortal, because, well, he can’t set anyone on fire). Besides, there was a popular saying that ruthlessness was mercy upon oneself.
Apollo smiled and held up three fingers.“Three reasons. First of all, you probably now hate Commodus more than I do. And I like that a lot.” Lityerses gave a lazy smile at that, no doubt sleepy himself. It was a sight for sore eyes, in Apollo’s humble opinion.
“Second, I trust you.”
“...Why?”
It was a question Apollo was expecting, and he already had an answer for it.
“Well, we share common ground. Sons of overbearing fathers, and we’re both misled by bad choices. You could say I relate to you.” Apollo said, staring at the scars in Lityerses’s face and unconsciously counting them while thinking about another response.
“I also trust you, just because I think you are trusted. Maybe it's a gut feeling.”
The son of Midas laughed. However, it wasn’t like the sound of a file across metal. It wasn’t like the cruel laugh Lityerses gave to him and Calypso at the zoo. No, it was an honest, genuine laugh. The kind of laugh that gives comfort after telling a joke you were so sure nobody found funny.
It was nice.
“A gut feeling, huh? For a god of prophecy like you, it must be right.”
Apollo didn’t know if that still applied to him as a mortal, but he saved that thought for an appropriate time.
“Prove it right then, Lit.”
Lityerses stared at him for a couple of seconds before replying, “I hope what I do tomorrow will prove it right, Apollo.”
Hearing him say his name made Apollo’s face burn for a bit. Absolutely embarrassing, Apollo mentally scolded himself. He’s just saying your name, for Hades’s sake! He prayed to the gods that the dim light would cover it up well enough for Lityerses not to see it.
“I’m sure it will, as long as you do what's right.”
Apollo always stared into Lityerses’s eyes like it was his hobby (it was entertaining, to say the least). It was easy to get lost in, along with the other attractive features Lityerses had. Right now, as he stared into the scarred man’s face, Apollo traced his appearance with his now mortal eyes. His hair, his scars, his sharp nose, oh, and a scar on his left brow… He hasn’t seen that before…
“What’s the third reason, then, Apollo? Or is that it?” The Cornhusker grinned at him. “Or maybe you could just keep staring at me, that’s fine too.”
Apollo blinked, “Right, uh…” What was he going to say again?
He cleared his throat, trying to avert his gaze from Lityerses. Apollo tried to remember what he meant to say, but it seemed like he had forgotten about it.
He blamed his stupid mortal brain for that. It wasn’t because of the fact he had been staring at Lityerses’s face for too long that he forgot what to say, No, not at all!
“Well…” Such a clever way to say your third reason, Apollo!
At that moment, Apollo finally remembered what he wanted to say.
“They wouldn’t last any longer in my hand.” Meg stood, her expression defiant. “Everything alive deserves a chance to grow.”
“A wise demigod companion of mine once said that, ‘Everything alive deserves a chance to grow’. And I think you deserve a chance to grow.” Apollo flashed a smile at Lityerses.
“...Was that from Meg?” Lityerses asked, his voice quiet, but loud enough for Apollo to hear clearly.
“Who else?”
Lityerses smirked at him. It looked like he was about to say something (maybe something to tease Apollo about Meg not being his demigod companion, but his demigod master), but his words were cut off with a yawn.
Apollo laughed, caught off guard by the unexpected yawn Lityerses gave. He clutched his stomach and giggled like a child.
He had heard somewhere that yawns were contagious, though Apollo hadn’t confirmed it himself, he quickly tried (emphasis on tried) to stop laughing at Lityerses, afraid that he might yawn as well in the middle of laughing at, well, a yawn.
Lityerses playfully rolled his eyes at the audacity Apollo had.
The grandfather clock chimed in the library, indicating that it was extremely late and that Apollo and Lityerses needed to sleep.
The sun god grinned at the former prefect, “Well, I guess that’s a sign. You should go rest first. I need to clean the library.”
Lityerses frowned, “Are you sure you don’t need my help?”
“I appreciate it, Lit. But last I checked, you were yawning earlier.” It pained Apollo to say that, but the demigod’s health was surely at risk. His god of healing brain said that sleeping late could affect someone's performance tomorrow, and Lityerses’s excellent swordsmanship was definitely needed for tomorrow.
It wasn’t like he wanted Lityerses to stay, no, no way!
Lityerses smiled at him as he stood up, “Alright. Whatever you say, doc.”
He doesn’t know the term crying over spilled milk, but he knows the slang for doctor? Apollo questioned, clearly baffled by the way Lityerses used the word ‘doc’.
He rolled his eyes and tried his best to clean up the library as best as possible, not wanting Emmie or Jo to discover how absolutely disarranged the library looked because of his desperation to look for answers.
Before Lityerses left the library, he looked at Apollo cleaning the library. Picking up stray paper and books around the floor, the sun god no longer looked… God-like.
When Lityerses found out that Apollo turned into a mortal, it was safe to say he was bewildered. A god, fallen from grace, now a mortal? And Apollo, out of all Olympians? Surely, it pained the sun god’s pride.
If he was being honest, he didn’t know much about Apollo other than the stories that circled around his ears about the god giving his father donkey ears.
When he heard that, he laughed till his throat ran dry. Ever since that day, he knew that Phoebus Apollon was definitely his favorite god out of the 12 Olympians, just for giving his father donkey ears.
Lityerses hesitated at the doorway, almost as if he was wondering if leaving Apollo alone was the right choice.
Something about what Meg said to Apollo, ‘Everything deserves a chance to grow’, made Lityerses think that it wasn’t just for him, but maybe also for Apollo himself. After all, all Olympians were prideful. It was just in their starter pack. Lityerses hoped he could see the god change for the better.
Right, he had almost forgotten why he came here in the first place.
“Apollo.”
“Hm?” replied Apollo.
“Thanks… For giving me a second chance.”
Apollo turned to look at him, smiling. He said, “It was my pleasure.”
And with that, Lityerses left the library, leaving Apollo alone with his racing thoughts.
Lityerses took a seat next to Apollo at the dining table, holding a mug of coffee. “I’ll watch after them.” He gestured at Georgina and her mothers.
Apollo’s mission on entering the Cave of Trophonius was finally over. After hearing about the prophecy Meg had given yesterday, he wasn’t really enthusiastic about leaving the Waystation. Oh, the things he would give to just stay in this wonderful place forever.
He had been staring at his surroundings. Leo and Calypso were arguing about what to bring for Leo’s journey to Camp Jupiter, Emmie hummed and banged around the kitchen, Georgina was coloring in her coloring books, and Josephine stood at her wielding station.
But Lityerses, sitting next to him, took all of his attention.
Apollo smiled, “I’m sure you’ll do well here. I trust you.”
Lityerses laughed bitterly, “I still don’t see why.”
“I already told the reason why that night, Lit.” Apollo playfully scoffed. “I’m not the type to say things twice. But you get it. We’re both sons of overbearing fathers, burdened by bad choices…” He thought about another thing they both had in common, “And, oh! Talented in our own chosen ways.”
“And good-looking?” Lityerses gave Apollo a twisted smile.
Apollo blinked. Maybe he was dreaming, or maybe he had consumed something (damned pancakes! He would have to tell Emmie about this…), but was Lityerses… Flirting with him? He inhaled a sharp breath, trying his best not to show the blush slowly creeping on his face.
He racked his brain, trying to find the perfect way to flirt back. He was Apollo, for the gods sake! Flirting was one of his talents!
Apollo fidgeted with his hands under the table, clearly nervous about delivering his punch line, but he still smiled at the Cornhusker.
“Naturally that, yes.”