Chapter Text
Artemis, Hermes, and Apollo were all loaded up in the car, having gone shopping and gotten together everything they’d need for a college dorm dinner. They were chatting in the parked car, waiting for Persephone to arrive.
Hermes was all aflutter, his red plume of hair sticking up from excitement like a bird of paradise as he chattered on about anything and nothing, and Apollo listened until he didn’t.
“What’s she like, anyway?” he asked. Apollo was plush whereas Hermes was lean. Hermes was all joints and elbows, nervous and manic energy, the awkward phase of young adulthood. Apollo was the ideal of athletic, but soft flesh, a shaped face that still clung to the fat of childhood. His eyes were sharp and old, like ancient, burning stars clinging on the fresh face of the morning.
“Who?” Hermes asked.
“New flower chick.”
Artemis huffed. “Her name’s Persephone. You’ll meet her. Now, be nice, not weird.”
“Yeah, be really nice, Apollo,” Hermes said, chuckling to himself.
Apollo shoved him. “I’m going to be a fucking delight!”
Artemis opened the car door, sticking her head out. “She’s here. Over here! Persephone! ”
Apollo had his aviators pushed all the way up on his face, but the glow of gold managed to break through the tinted plastic. Hermes hadn’t mentioned she was hot. His eyes skirted over her body as she waved and ran over, before shoving into the backseat of the car. As always, Summer wanted to devour Spring the moment he caught sight of her, to take it into himself. The lion hunted the unicorn.
Artemis grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. “How’d it go?”
“Oh, great, we worked everything out. Have you ever met Aphrodite?” Artemis nodded. “Well, he was a guy while I was talking to him–”
“You mean Eros?” Apollo scoffed.
“No, Eros was there too. I’m talking about Aphroditus. Oh, wait– I haven’t introduced myself. And Hermes! Hermes, you’re here! Hi!”
“Hi, Persy!”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in casual clothes, you look great!”
“Thanks, I haven’t seen you in anything other than a tunic before. Pants suit you way better.”
Apollo rolled his eyes.
Artemis gestured towards Apollo. “This is my brother, Apollo. Apollo, meet Persephone.”
She stuck out her hand. “Nice to meet you, Apollo!”
They shook across the car seats, and he smiled. “I’m disappointed we didn’t meet before. When did you arrive?”
“A few weeks ago.”
“And Arty didn’t tell me? For shame.”
Artemis, sitting behind him in the car, reached over the driver’s seat and dug her fingers into a pressure point that made him recoil and twist like a snake in death throws.
“ FUCK, FUCK, SHIT! ” he yelled. When he’d shaken off her hands, he looked back at her with burning anger in his eyes. “What the fuck was that for, you bitch?”
“You literally answer none of my calls! If you ever answered me, maybe I would have told you about my roommate!”
Apollo huffed, then silently looked away and turned on the car.
“This thing’s fancy,” Persephone said quietly, trying to dissolve the tension.
Hermes nodded so hard he flipped his hair up. “Yeah! Big ol’– sports car,” and they shared the look of friends watching family fight.
“... Vroom,” Persephone said.
“Vroom, vroom!” he replied enthusiastically.
“ What are you guys talking about?” Apollo asked. He looked at them through the overhead mirror for a moment as he drove.
“The car?” Hermes asked.
“It’s pretty nice,” Persephone said. “Yellow’s an interesting colour choice.”
Apollo visibly preened. “Yeah! Cost a pretty penny! I thought, ‘hey, if I get a bright, unique car, then if it gets stolen, I’d be able to find it easily.’”
“Easy to find in a parking lot, too.”
“Exactly, you get it! Arty thinks it’s garish.”
The Hunt scoffed, leaning back as she looked at the passing buildings. “Because it absolutely is. It makes you look like a douchebag.”
“Anyway– Arty said you were in the Underworld?” Apollo went on.
Hermes looked back at her. “Yeah, how was that?”
Persephone shrugged. “Hades has a massive house.” Hermes talked under her about how he’d seen it for work, but just the outside. “A really big dog, too. He seemed alright. Gave me a fur coat that seems really expensive. I don’t know, he–”
“You know he was just being nice to get into your pants?” Apollo said.
“Ugh!” Artemis rolled her eyes.
Persephone stuck her tongue into her cheek as she thought. “Well, that’s what I’m wondering.”
“What’s to wonder?” Artemis groaned. “He’s a guy!”
Persephone opened her mouth to talk, then closed it. “I don’t know how I feel about him. Everything else considered, though, nothing bad happened, so, he’s alright.”
The conversation went on, and eventually, everyone was chatting happily. They got to the apartment and burst through the door like puppies, all rolling over each other to claim seats, look for food, or just get set up.
“Are we eating?” Hermes yelled, right before he flopped face-first into the couch.
Artemis put all the groceries onto the counter (having carried them all by herself in one trip). “No,” she said dryly.
“I can make dinner!” Persephone announced. She swept over to the counter and inspected the contents of the bag. There were plenty of things to be made with meat and vegetables, however, there was one easy option. “I can put stuff into the crockpot, and it’ll be done after we watch a movie or something? Stew’s okay?”
There was a muffled sound of agreement from the couch.
“Stew, Apollo?” Persephone asked.
He nodded and smiled. “Sounds great, Persy.”
Hermes’s head popped up. “That’s my nickname for her! You can’t steal it!”
“What, did you trademark it?”
“Yes! I trademarked and copyrighted it, and you have to give me a hundred dollars every time you say it.”
“I’ll put down an IOU.”
Artemis and Persephone laughed, before Artemis addressed her again. “We’ll choose a movie, you get dinner going?” Persephone nodded, and Artemis left the kitchen to join the boys in the living room.
They leisurely scrolled through movie selections. The various genres were debated by merit and by appropriateness for the occasion, as well as checking the content to make sure there was nothing gratuitous. Hermes was defending the latest blockbuster, a heist film about infiltrating Mt. Etna to steal secret documents from the Typhon Corp., but he was being outvoted by Apollo and Artemis, who both shared a passion for Art-House type cinema. They were suggesting a silent film, so that they could add sound effects and talk during it, but Hermes was aghast at the idea of a movie without music.
“You don’t appreciate the medium of silent film and the simple moving picture,” Artemis said.
Hermes sputtered. “But you wouldn’t even be– not even watching it as intended! We don’t have a live band!”
“I’m the live band,” Apollo said. “I’ll get out my lyre.”
“You cannot be the band for a–”
Artemis, cocking an ear, suddenly held up a finger, and they fell silent. A very quiet whimper of pain. Apollo stood first. Hermes vaulted over the couch, and Artemis followed last as they peeked over the kitchen.
“You alright?” Artemis asked.
Persephone looked up from the cutting board. She had her finger in her mouth, but there was trickling gold already running down her wrist and dripping onto her clothes. She mumbled reassurance out around her finger.
Artemis gasped. Then, she swallowed her breath. “Are you okay?”
Apollo waved in front of Artemis. “You have a first aid kit?”
“I think. I’d have to look.”
“Go,” Apollo said, and Artemis nodded and left, Hermes going to help her look.
Apollo stepped into the kitchen, took her wrist, and pulled it out of her mouth. “You need to clean the wound, not stick it into your mouth.” Persephone fought the urge to pull away from him as he ran the finger under warm water. “We’ll clean it out with rubbing alcohol, since I don’t want to disturb that cut with a washcloth.”
He took a clean towel, and held her hand, compressing the cut as she leaned against the counter. She was mesmerized by the deftness of his hands. He was so confident. And, he seemed to notice her staring.
“God of medicine, or did you forget?” he said. “I have a doctorate, but it doesn’t go well with my name. And it makes me sound like a nerd.” He scoffed. “Doctor Apollo. Can you imagine?”
Persephone nodded. The sight of her blood was making her head spin.
“You were trying to not make a noise,” Apollo said as he squeezed her hand through the towel. “People wouldn’t think anything if you cried. But, you seem like someone used to hiding things.”
She furrowed her brow. “What do you mean by that?”
“Hm, I don’t know. I just think– well, I didn’t know what to expect. But you’re obviously not what people expect, are you?”
Persephone laughed, a little off-put. “I wouldn’t know.”
“No, you wouldn’t. But I think we’re— kindred spirits, you and I,” Apollo said. His eyes were wide and searching.
“...Apollo, that’s–”
Hermes came barrelling back in. “Found it!” he said, and slammed it down onto the counter.
“Not so rough.” Apollo opened the box. “Don’t want to jostle the contents.”
“Sorry!”
Persephone winced as Apollo cleaned the cut, and then dabbed it dry with gauze, putting some healing balm on it, and then wrapping it up. “That should be fine in an hour or two, and then just chuck the bandage.”
“Thanks,” Persephone said.
“We all good?”
“We’re good.”
Apollo beamed. “Can we take a selfie? Just for documentation.” Persephone looked oddly at him, and then shrugged.
Apollo chucked his phone at Hermes, who protested, “This isn’t a ‘selfie’, then!” before he raised the camera. Apollo wrapped his arm around Persephone, leaning in close, and she was startled by the sudden oppressiveness of his body and how tightly he held her, smelling almost sickly sweet, like honey and absinthe.
Hermes snapped a picture. It was the last photo taken of Apollo before he disappeared.
“Hermes, did you find–” Artemis walked in, and Persephone raised her wrapped hand at her. “Okay, that’s good.”
Hermes nodded, and then turned to Persephone. “Hey, do you wanna watch a cool, new action movie–”
“Or an interactive piece of timeless art!” Artemis interrupted as they all walked to the living room.
“I’ll even get out my lyre! It’ll be so cool!”
Persephone laughed as she listened to the arguments from both sides. They played a round of the Landlord’s Game, cussing out Hermes for having such rotten good luck, and by the end of it, they had decided on watching Hermes’s movie, but muting it, and coming up with their own plot and dialogue.
They even assigned each other different characters to play.
However, Persephone’s character ended up dying in the first few minutes, so she was just listening to the other people, spacing out as she watched the characters on the screen move. At some point, she had leaned into Apollo’s side, and he rubbed her arm slowly, lulling her into a half-sleep. She eventually yawned, stretched, her toes curling out into the air like buds blossoming. “I’m turning in, I think. Night, everyone.”
“Night-night, Perse,” Artemis said.
“Night,” Apollo said.
“I’ve got work in the morning, anyway. I’ll turn in.” Artemis glanced at the television. “Finish if you want. Lock the door when you leave, though.”
Apollo gave Artemis a silent thumbs-up.
Hermes was asleep. He was curled up on the couch like a cat. Artemis was already in her room. He waited until the house was quiet, and then turned the volume of the movie back up, and rewound it to the beginning. After checking Hermes, poking him once, Apollo was satisfied that everything was still in the apartment. Sleeping.
He stood up. The hallway was dark. Apollo lit it with a sickly gold glow as he passed, like a tiger reflecting the moonlight off of the orange of its back. Plague, was he as well, as summer cooked boils to ripeness, bodies rotting in the sun, and medicine that cut out the infection; Apollo, patient maker and doctor in one. He wanted to fill her with sickness so he could suck out the poison.
He cracked open the door, slid in, and shut it behind him. His mind was perfectly empty. He was all body and no thought. He sat down on the bed and began rubbing across Persephone’s thigh.
“Hey, Persephone, wake up,” he said quietly. The slow motion roused her from light slumber, and she blinked, looking up at his cat eyes in the dark. Her own eyes glistened, and his face over her was underlit with a deep red.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Shh, nothing. I’m just here to see you.”
He leaned over and kissed her before she could react. His lips were soft, smooth, his breath sweet and clean.
“I waited all night for this.”
She gasped, pulling back. “Apollo, don’t. You don’t want to do this.”
“I do. I think you do, too. Whatever happens, you won’t tell anyone, will you? That’s the kind of person you are.” He leaned in and ran his lips over the skin of her neck. He pulled her in, tightening his arms around her. He was like a vice. Swaddling her like an infant with his limbs, trying to fully enclose her with his body.
“No, no, please, get out, leave, and–”
“Persephone. You have a dark side, I can see it.” He pulled his head back, and their eyes met. Red and yellow, ruby and gold, and they stared at each other. It was vile to see her reflection on the surface of that metallic sheen. “You like dark things.” His haunting, owl-like gaze did not leave her face. Even as he slipped his hand under her slip, up her waist, and resting just on her ribs. She inhaled, and he could feel her living under his fingers. “Like me.”
Words echoed in her head. A familiar, comforting voice, that urged her to action.
“ And when you violate someone’s body, you forfeit all rights to your own. ”
She didn’t scream, although that was what he had told her. Her rage was so great it collapsed in on itself, into a heavy pit of fire inside of her, and she reached out her hand and covered Apollo’s eyes and face.
“Hey, what–” he said softly.
Then her magic screamed. He was small, he was nothing, he was nothing, he didn’t deserve his body, he had no rights to it. He had no right to exist and move in the world after what he wished to do. And all she wanted was for him to go away.
Everything was roaring in her ears. She was only a hand, blazing with magic and power. Her rage was water, frothing, boiling hot, churning, inextinguishable.
And his body was burning away in white light, he opened his mouth, in a silent scream, he made no noise as his form disintegrated, compressed– The light made the room harsh and small, emanating from a single collapsing star that hovered over the bed.
Something dropped onto the sheets. But Persephone was already fading, and collapsed back onto her pillows. Her body was slick with sweat. She was cold, shaking. Her teeth were chattering. She felt entirely drained of everything she had to give. She pulled her knees up against her chest and stared back down at the bed at what was left.
A little knife made of dark purple wood, with a yellow flower blooming at the handle. She looked at it for a few minutes. She was too frightened to move, but her chest was heaving with effort. Was he dead?
She reached out to touch it, and recoiled as if burned. The wood was warm. She grabbed it. It was thrumming, almost as if it was breathing.
He was alive in there.
She sat in silence.
What had she done?
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Hera was a notorious smoker, and the only reason the most expensive restaurants still allowed smoking indoors. But for a working environment, everyone was still forced outside into the alley or onto a balcony, or just hunched out a window to let the smog drift off into the sun.
Thetis knew this, but she had still never considered the fact that Hera would go outside to smoke while at AKRA. It shouldn’t have surprised her, but it did, when Thetis had been leaning against the brick wall at the back, and the door opened and closed, dropping Hera next to her as if she had fallen from the sky. Thetis’s heart nearly jumped out of her chest.
She made a point of avoiding Hera, especially as Thetis’s mistress status had been cemented in the company psyche. However, when Hera looked at her, there was acknowledgement and complete emptiness. Hera was looking past her, into oblivion.
She was about to duck away as quickly as possible, but Hera pulled out a cigarette. “Do you have a light?” she asked.
Thetis nodded and silently lit Hera’s cig for her.
She watched as Hera inhaled, and then let smoke pour from her mouth.
“Can you file this?” Hera handed her a yellow folder.
“What is it?”
“Approving internship as college credits.” Hera was a longtime member of the OPU board, having been a helicopter mom when Ares and Eileithyia went through it. Thetis was not the person who should be filling this out, skill-wise and authority-wise.
“Sure, may I ask–” Thetis opened the folder and read the name. Then the internship company. She looked up and examined Hera’s face. The utterly empty expression, stinking of nihilism and rotting hope.
Thetis realized why Hera was giving this to her. “Alright,” Thetis said. “I’ll… pass it along.”
Hera nodded, taking another drag of the cigarette. She held it in her lungs for longer than Thetis would have and then sent a magnificent plume into the warm evening air. “Thanks for the light,” she said. She walked inside, and Thetis was left outside with the folder in hand. The paper was almost still warm from the printer. Thetis snapped a picture of the relevant information and sent it over to Minthe.