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‘Come here.’
Meg leaned into Apollo’s arms, her body shaking from all of the stress and grief from the past few days. His arms wrapped around her in a delicate embrace, as if he was scared that letting go would hurt her even more. She didn’t have the heart to tell him that he stank like a rotting corpse.
‘I am sorry. I am sorry.’ She murmured into his chest. He ruffled her hair in an affectionate way that she had not experienced, since… well ever. When was the last time someone had been so caring and nice to her?
‘It’s not your fault.’ Lester reassured her. ‘We just have to get godly help. And I will be as fine as a Lester can be.’
‘I was supposed to protect you,’ Meg sobbed, letting her tears and mucus soak into his clothes. ‘You aren’t supposed to die. You are a god.’
He didn’t say anything. Instead, his hands stroked her back in a rhythmic fashion, sending jolts of electricity that slowly relieved her aching joints. It felt surprisingly cathartic, the two of them just sitting there in the light of the evening sun.
‘Okay,’ Meg said at last, her shoulders slumping as the last of her pent up emotions left her. ‘You go rest. I-I will go get dinner.’
Apollo agreed, and he laid back down abruptly. As Meg turned to close the door behind her, she couldn’t help but glance at the purple lines of infection that were slowly consuming him and think about what was to come next. When they leave for the Sutro place and get that godly healing that Apollo required. Whether he was going to survive the next day.
She left the room, dreading that it would be the first and last time that she ever got to hug her older brother.
~~~
Meg McCaffrey breathed a sigh of relief when the Beast fell.
Her heart and body ached, and she could only rush to Lester once he gave out. She told her siblings to stay put, not meeting their eyes as she recalled how they tried to kill her earlier. Right now, she thought, Apollo needs her.
She fumbled for a healing salve in her gardening belt, and sighed once she had found one. Apollo looked badly injured, the stab wound in his side looking red and angry. In his feverish state, he muttered, ‘Artemis.’ and ‘Father.’
‘Python,’ Rachel announced to the group. ‘He needs to get ready for the fight.’
She thought about the time, six months ago, where Apollo told her the truth about his grapple with Python. How he had used all of his divine strength and the world’s deadliest bow and arrows to slay the monster. How he had suffered from nightmares for centuries afterwards, as the snake opened its maw and swallowed the god whole.
Apollo was a god then. He wasn’t one now.
‘Is he going to be okay? With…’ Meg waved to his unconscious form. ‘That.’
Rachel didn’t reply. Instead, she took in a shaky breath and clenched her jaw. Perhaps to keep the snakey fumes in, or perhaps to spare the others from her own thoughts.
Lester gasped, his eyes flying open. He pointed weakly at Nico, Will and Rachel, mouthing words that she couldn’t hear. Lu lumbered next to him and nodded.
Meg was the next to lean next to him, opening her healing salve to go over his ouchies. ‘You got a lot of wounds.’
He smirked, before his gaze dropped again. This was the final push. The final time they may see each other. Because one way or another, Apollo wasn’t coming back from Delphi the same person he had been in the past six months.
‘Meg, you were so brave,’ he faltered, ‘And so you. You did well.’
She shrugged, reaching over to lather the last ouchie. ‘I had a good support system.’
Lester smiled, though his eyes remained stormy. ‘They had you and- OW!’
‘Yeah I had to,’ Meg poked him lightly in his stab wound, glancing around the room. Her eyes met those of her dispirited siblings, and one by one, a light began to shine to them.
Apollo wrapped his arms around her, and tried to grin. ‘What if I don’t come back?’
‘Just come back to me, dummy,’ she sighed. ‘That’s an order.’
~~~
‘Piano lessons…’
Apollo smiled, hefting the piano books under his arms nervously. ‘I made a promise after all.’
Meg studied him once more, marvelling at how he seemed more confident and more sure ever since he became a god again.
She was scared that he would go back to his previous goddy ways. The old Apollo of six months ago where he whined and complained about everything. The Apollo that Nero had told her about, the cruel, golden god that would smite you if you dared to annoy him.
But in front of her stood Lester Papadopoulos her idiotic older brother who held her when she cried. The one who made stupid jokes that she barely held in. And the one who saved her, over and over again.
'Okay,' she agreed. 'I don't have a piano though.'
Lester laughed and snapped his fingers. In the next room, a heavy object thumped onto the ground, slightly shaking the house.
'Now you do,' he announced proudly.
He led her over to the piano, placing his hands on the keys and teaching her the basic chords. G major, C major, D major… It went on and on.
Surprisingly, Meg found out that she can handle having both hands playing at the same time. An advantage of having trained with two blades, she supposed. Either that or it was because she was getting personal lessons from the god of music.
Apollo taught her to play a few more chords, while he flicked through the books, desperate to find a song that seemed easy to play.
He seemed to have found one, as he lifted his hands and began to belt out heart-wrenching note after note. Meg watched him in an entranced manner. His face was scrunched up in concentration while his fingers danced across the keys like it was nothing.
The tune of the song seemed familiar, and she realised that it was a tune from simpler times. The times when her real father was still around. He had played this song on the radio many times, and her younger self had bounced up and down in joy.
Strangely, this thought comforted her. It felt like it was a final gift from her father, a song played by an older brother she never knew she had. Meg's shoulders slumped forward, loosening the figurative knots in her body.
Without realising, she began to hum. It started off as a small, vibrating noise at the back of her throat, but it blossomed into a song. Instinctively, her mouth began to recite the lyrics, drawing on past memories of love.
Apollo nodded at her, and the two of them began to work a musical number. Their eyes locked onto each other. She knew what she had to do.
And so she channelled her love, her admiration, her gratitude to Apollo.
He started off as someone who her stepfather wanted to use, a tool in his disposal. He was a pitiful delusional nobody, but Meg felt that it was her job to protect him. She was his master after all. And he was her servant.
Over the course of several months, he had changed. She didn't know whether it was because sacrifices had to be made for his sake, or because he had always suppressed his true self. Meg had suspected it to be both.
His identity was changing, and he would never be the god that Nero had told her about. He was Apollo, god of many things, but he was also Lester. Her dummy. Her older brother.
She sang the last line, just as the music slowed. Apollo tapped the final note gently, his eyes misty and glazed over.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, their souls reeling from the overwhelming rawness that it had brought forth. There were many ways to describe it, Meg thought. A butterfly fresh out of its cocoon. A snake having just finished shedding its skin.
But in the end, words don't really communicate how deep their love for each other runs.
Physical affection does though. When Apollo slunk his arm over her shoulders, like he had done so many other times, Meg surprised him, and even herself.
She hugged him back.