Chapter Text
The cool, crisp night turned into a bright, sunny morning as Tommy pulled his chariot from east to west bringing the mortals sunlight once again. Tommy enjoyed his job, even though doing the same thing everyday got a little tedious sometimes. The best part was that, every morning, when he returned to Mount Olympus he could see the mortals down below attending to their morning duties, seeing them working made Tommy realise that maybe there wasn’t such a huge difference between mortals and immortals. At the end of the day, everyone had a part to play to help the world work.
Tommy had always been fascinated with mortals. He often visited them, disguised as one of them, to learn about their ways. His favourite thing about the mortals was their plain names, infact he liked them so much that he started to refer to himself as “Tommy” (which Athena had told him meant “twin”). He also liked that every morning when they woke up, they would thank him for bringing the sunlight once again.
They referred to him as Helios, his actual name. The one that his parents and mentors gave him. He didn’t dare ask for them to call him “Tommy” as Titans and Gods were not supposed to have human names.
The only people that called him “Tommy” were his two best friends Aristaeus, god of bee-keeping, dairy farming and fruit trees, and Algaia, one of three daughters of Zeus and Eurynome. Goddess of beauty and glory.
They took human names in support of Tommy, although never actually told anyone about them. Algaia took the name of Niki, while Aristaeus called himself Toby, which then turned into Tubbo as Niki struggled to pronounce it. Human names were their special thing.
— — —
Tommy stationed his chariot into the stables as he freed his four winged steeds from the reigns, returning each to their own stable.
“Well, how was it?” A voice asked from behind.
He turned around the see Apollo standing in the doorway. Apollo was Tommy’s mentor, he had taught him how to pull up the sun each morning and how to pull it down at each night.
“The same as every morning” Tommy replied. “You know, for the God of the Sun you sure don’t help with it.”
Apollo laughed.
“If I actually did my job what would I need you for?” He teased “Plus I’m very busy”
“Oh yeah?” Tommy challenged “With what exactly?”
“Well for instance, today I have been planning your party” He explained
Tommy had completely forgotten! Today was the 87th day of the year, also known as Helios Day. This was the day he had been brought into the world. Every God or Titan had their own day but Tommy was lucky enough to have this whole one to himself.
“Wow. Surprised you even remembered. We all know you’re not exactly the god of wisdom.” Tommy said, knowing this would annoy Apollo, he hated to be made to feel dumb and Tommy often took advantage of that.
“Very amusing, Little One” Apollo retorted.
He knew Tommy hated being called “Little One” as Tommy was a lot more scrawny than the other Titans and often got bullied because of it. He didn’t understand why he hadn’t grown as much as everyone else but he used it to his advantage. Being smaller made him more nimble and stealthy being able to sneak around Olympus. He enjoyed pulling pranks on others which resulted in him not being exactly popular.
This was because he wasn’t as stealthy as he thought he was. He had had curly hair as bright as the sun and eyes as blue as the water it shone on. This caused him to be pretty recognisable.
“How creative.” Tommy replied in a sarcastic tone. “I’ve never heard that one before”
“As exciting as this conversation was, I have a party to plan” Apollo said, excusing himself from the room.
“More like wine to drink” Tommy muttered under his breath
“What was that?” Apollo asked, walking back towards the doorway.
“Nothing!” Tommy said giving him one of his sunniest smiles.
Apollo walked off into the distance. Greeting the people he walked by. Tommy could still hear him even though he couldn’t see him, this always annoyed Tommy.
“Why does he always have to be so loud?” Tommy often thought to himself.
Apollo and Tommy had a love-hate relationship. While Tommy appreciated the mentoring he gave, he also couldn’t stand the guy. He was too loud and always tried too hard to be funny. Tommy couldn’t deal with that, especially first thing in the morning.
Tommy checked on his horses, making sure they were okay before leaving the stables and heading to find Niki and Tubbo.
— — —
Tommy made his way over to Zeus’ palace as he knew that is where Niki and Tubbo would be. That’s where all the Gods would be for their daily breakfast feast.
As he walked in everybody turned to look at him before erupting into a chorus of “Happy Helios Day!”. Tommy smiled, he didn’t feel appreciated that often.
“Come here, Boy!” Zeus called from the other side of the room.
Usually when he had to talk to Zeus it meant he was in big trouble but today at least he knew, well hoped, that it wasn’t the case.
Tommy strode down the middle of the room as eyes followed him. He walked up the stairs to the table of the Olympians. Where the “most important” Gods sat. Zeus stood up from his chair and greeted Tommy.
“Happy Helios Day!” He said nodding at him
“Thank you very much” Tommy replied, a little scared to be in his presence.
Zeus turned to face the crowd and putting is large hand on Tommy’s shoulder. He staggered slightly at the weight.
“Today…” He bellowed “We celebrate Helios and the light he brings to our life’s” He told the crowd
“Quite literally” Zeus joked
Everyone dissolved into a fit of laughter. Tommy didn’t think it was that great of a joke but still chuckled along.
“Even though he can sometimes be quite the prankster…” Zeus continued
He looked down at Tommy, who shot him an apologetic grin.
“…He is a very important part of the work we do and we thank him for that.”
The room exploded into applause. Even though Tommy knew it wasn’t really for him, he still basked in the moment.
“Go find your friends” Zeus whispered to him giving him a little pat on the back.
Tommy walked back down the stairs, scanning the room for Tubbo and Niki.
He managed to spot them at a table close to the doors and sped up a little, feeling overwhelmed by all the staring.
“Happy Helios Day!” Niki said as Tommy sat at the table.
“Thank you, kind lady” Tommy replied
The room returned to a hum of background noise.
“Well?” He said looking at Tubbo, who was sitting beside him
“Happy Helios Day.” Tubbo said with his mouth full of apple
“Yuck!” Tommy exclaimed “Say it, don’t spray it!”
“Sorry” Tubbo apologised with his mouth still full.
Tommy laughed, shaking his head.
“So.” Niki asked “What are your plans for today? With it being your day after all.”
“I thought I would head down to the village. Be with the mortals” Tommy said
“I’ve heard of humans wanting to be Gods but I’ve never heard of Gods wanting to be humans” Tubbo said
“I don’t want to be human, I just find them interesting” Tommy explained “They get to choose who they get to be, it’s not planned from birth like with us”
“Ooooh” Tubbo joked “How very deep”
“Shut up” Tommy said, swatting at him. “Just because you like your job. You just get to hang out with bees all day and eat fruit.”
“You quite literally get to fly around the whole world twice a day. I’ve never been out of Olympus!” Tubbo responded
“Well, you could but your too much of a baby to come to the village with me” Tommy stated
“Am not!” Tubbo retorted
The spent the rest of the feast eating and talking about their mornings and what would become of the day before Zeus finally stood up from his seat, excusing everyone else.
Tommy gulped down the remainder of his drink. Shouting
“See ya!”
To Tubbo and Niki as he raced out the hall and out of the palace.
He ran for the gates and greeted Horai.
“You again?” He asked “How often do you visit the foolish mortals?”
“As much as possible” Tommy answered
“I’ll never understand why.” He said opening the gates to let him through
“Happy Helios Day!” Horai shouted after Tommy, as he raced through the gates.
Tommy reached the bottom of the cloud stairs before stepping onto solid ground. He loved the way the real ground felt. Walking felt so much more purposeful when you could feel the ground beneath you.
Tommy headed down the mountain and towards the village.
— — —
Tommy reached the bottom, looking up at the mountain above him. He took a deep breath. Mortal walking sure was tiring.
He walked towards the buildings in the distance.
The first he walked by was a place that sold special liquid. Tommy had been in there multiple times although they would never sell him the special drink. It was brown and sticky looking. Last time he was there Tommy decided he was happy they didn’t let him drink it because it looked and smelled disgusting.
He then headed towards the markets, which were his favourite place in the whole village. They were colourful little stalls that sold all kinds of things. Every time he visited he made sure to look at all of them, checking every piece of merchandise. This often annoyed the stall owners because he never bought anything, only looked. Tommy had no clue how to get the circular discs that you could trade for items but wanted some badly.
Tommy decided to make a day out of the visit and walked down every street looking at each house. It was weird that everyone had their own little space to live as back on Mount Olympus, Tommy only had a bed outside the stables and that was it.
He had made it back to the markets when he saw everyone packing their stalls up. Tommy realised that he had spent a little to long at the village and had to get back quickly so he could pull down the sun and bring nighttime.
He ran up the mountain making it to the top in record time. He looked up from the ground to see that the usual cloud stairs weren’t there. Tommy was confused and started to panic. What if he couldn’t get home? This had never happened before. The stairs had always been there waiting for him.
“Hello?” He shouted “Horai?”
The wind whistled but no one responded.
“What am I going to do?” Tommy muttered to himself.
He paced in the same spot for a while. Thinking about all the possible reasons that the gates were missing.
“I’m not a mortal. I should be able to see the gates. Am I a mortal? No thats stupid.” He thought to himself.
Not knowing what to do he ran down back down to the village. As he got closer he noticed a large gathering of people standing outside, staring at the sky. He pushed his way into the group and looked up at the sky. The sun was still up. It should’ve been dark for a while now.
“Where is Helios?” A person beside him muttered to themselves.