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Percy was supposed to be having a chill day, no worries about gods, no worries about school, or even his family.
Just a day for him to relax and worry about nothing, which was hard to come by even a couple years after Gaea was defeated.
He had chosen not to do the quests Zeus required for him to go to New Rome because he was done doing quests. He was honestly quite done with the Greek world.
Oh, he didn't want to entirely leave it behind. He knew he couldn't. He may have hit adulthood and things may be settling down soon with his smell, and anyway, most monsters showed up to fight him, realized who he was and booked it out of there without causing any property damage these days.
It wasn't all bad.
He just was tired of everyone expecting more of him than he was willing to give.
He was tired of everyone expecting him to do quests. To protect them just because they asked.
He was tired of how some people seemed to flip flop on how much they liked him based on how useful he was.
He had lost Annabeth to the decision to not bother with the quests. She had made the Greek world her life when she was seven.
She didn't know what it was to be normal, and she was happy to go to New Rome.
Percy realized after he declined the quests, as he looked into colleges that would fit his needs, that there were a lot of cons about moving out to California anyway, including leaving behind his mom and soon to be born sister. He liked living in New York, and he liked the people.
And... while he was fond of Camp Jupiter and the demigods there, he wasn't sure he was so comfortable with their approach to things. Namely, strict discipline that would never suit him.
It was easier when he had no memories. But with his memories... yeah.
Percy just wanted to have a day to himself. No family. No gods or quests disturbing him. No demigods demanding or begging him to help them.
Just... chilling.
So naturally, he felt the presence of a god. He kept his eyes closed, taking in the bright sunshine feel of the god who had joined him.
Apollo. Who had a habit of having far too many requests even if he at least had gotten the memo that Percy would flat out refuse a quest, unlike some other gods. Apollo never bothered him with his many quests these days.
Percy sighed. "What do you want?" He opened his eyes and was startled to find Apollo staring at him with a very intense look.
He resisted the urge to look down as he remembered that he had chosen to wear swimwear so he could enjoy the water. He hadn't only been in swimwear around Apollo before, had he?
"I was just in the area and thought you could use some company."
"I'm relaxing."
"Ah, yes, that explains the attire." Apollo sent him a grin.
Percy sighed. Apollo did look adorable when he wanted to, but he wasn't about to just give in for a pretty face.
"I am serious, I’m here to get away from everyone and all responsibilities."
Apollo hummed in thought, looking out over the ocean in front of him. "You've found yourself a nice private spot for that. What if I joined you?" He pulled out his lyre and started strumming.
Percy groaned but didn't protest.
Out of all the gods, Apollo had been the most annoyingly persistent, so it was a choice between accepting the god's company or arguing with him until he either gave in anyway or finally convinced Apollo to leave him alone.
It wasn't worth it, and really, it was rarely worth it.
So Percy started ignoring Apollo and relaxing.
To his surprise, Apollo wasn't bad company when he wasn't being annoying with his requests. He just sat there playing his lyre, watching Percy, but he never said anything. The rare times he opened his mouth was because he was singing a song.
Percy almost started dozing to the music as he relaxed, but all things had to come to an end.
His alarm had gone off. It was time to return to reality, and to university, where he had to deal with all sorts of people.
He let out a breath and stood.
"Time to go?" Apollo asked, tilting his head.
Percy sighed. "Yeah. I've got homework."
"Need any help?"
"I think I'm good. It's more the process of doing it that's the problem than lacking any knowledge."
"Ah, well, you can always call on me for help."
"So then I can owe you?"
"Hmm. What if I think I owe you?"
Percy gave him a skeptical look.
Apollo shrugged. "You have done a lot. You saved Artemis, you took the sky so she could join the fight instead of being a hero, and that was just the first time I met you. I don't know that I can say I have paid you back enough for all of that. And well. When you heard about the prophecy issue, you were right on that too, even though you didn't have to."
Percy raised an eyebrow at that. "I did kind of have to. Everyone was guilting me into helping out. Though I had been considering it anyway, Rachel is my friend and I don't like anything messing with my friends. You didn't have to jump in." And why bring it up now, he wondered. It had happened shortly after Gaea, and it had been years since then.
Apollo huffed. "Dear old Dad wanted me to be mortal for all of that, because no interference, and he was going to use what Octavius did as an excuse. I didn't exactly want Python to have prophecy or my oracle or any of that, though, so I wasn't going to not interfere."
"You did have perfect timing."
"And I couldn't have done anything without you." Apollo winked at Percy.
Percy rolled his eyes. "You're a flirt."
"And you don't react. Most do."
Percy shrugged. "At this point I figure I'm asexual. Maybe demisexual." It wasn't something he hid and if it got others to back off all the better.
(That was another reason he was glad to have broken off a relationship with Annabeth; she was looking to advance their relationship as they got older and he wasn't certain if he wanted that.)
"Oh, I see. That explains a lot."
"So are you going to follow me back or are you going to disappear now?"
"I'll go away now. But I might be back sometime."
.
Apollo didn't leave Percy alone after that, it seemed like every time Percy was looking for peace and quiet, a chance to relax, Apollo was there.
He didn't require talking, though he did spend a bit more time watching Percy than he was comfortable with.
But... It was also nice. Over several months, Apollo proved to not want anything other than hanging out with Percy and sometimes chatting.
Not even about monsters or anything, but about other things. Things any mortal would talk about.
Sometimes, Percy even found himself forgetting he was chatting with a god.
By the time it had been six months of hanging out, Percy was always looking forward to seeing Apollo.
Because sometimes, real life sucked.
He loved his mom, and he adored his sister. He was so happy that his mom had another chance. But with him spending most of his time at college, he often felt like an outsider, and with how normal Estelle and Paul were, and by extension his mom's life, aside from her love of blue food, he didn't like bringing trouble to her.
The less he said about his life at university, the better. The only good thing was that he had proper accommodations and for once, someone who was willing to work with him to figure out exactly what he ended, so his grades were surprisingly high for how difficult the material was.
But the people... yeah. At least his roommate was decent if barely there and always quiet when he was around.
Apollo was a breath of fresh air. Never expecting anything from Percy, willing to talk about the things Percy wanted to talk about, and Percy felt at ease with him.
Though it was disconcerting how he always appeared. He must have been paying close attention to Percy, and he didn’t know how he felt about that, so he decided to be in denial.
Percy continued visiting Camp Halfblood, though every time he was asked for help, he skipped a planned visit. Every time someone convinced him to help out instead of trying to deal with something they could have handled themselves, he avoided it for much longer before going back.
He could never fully leave Camp Halfblood, but he needed breaks when everyone expected him to always save them.
And yet... Apollo did give a couple of quests to occupy some bored campers who were used to more excitement, and he explicitly told them he expected them to get it done without asking Percy or any of the Seven. Or Nico.
It was nice, knowing that at least if Apollo issued a quest it would have nothing to do with him. Someone respected his boundaries, at least.
After a good day out on the water with Apollo accompanying him and giving him suggestions on what he could do and try, Percy felt pretty good about going back to his dorm to study.
Percy noticed the usual idiots following him and ignored them. He was almost to his dorm building.
Then a glass shattered against his head. He barely felt the pain as the glass fell to the ground.
He turned and stared at them. "Are you serious? What a hazard."
"Come on, you're such a loser."
Percy rolled his eyes and turned to resume walking.
"We know you're part of a gang."
Percy turned to stare at them. "Okay I have not heard that one before. But is it tied to the whole thing where my mom and I went missing and I was kidnapped by a terrorist?"
"Wait, what?"
Percy rolled his eyes. "Look it up. I'm not scared of you."
"Then why don't you fight back?"
Percy snorted. "Because you'd end up in the hospital. I know how to fight and I don't know how to hold back."
"I don't know," Apollo's voice sounded from behind them, now dressed to look more like the typical college student. "You hold back just fine when it's the kids at camp."
"Yeah, because I'm teaching them."
Apollo smirked as he picked glass out of Percy's hair, looking down at him from a few inches higher. "Why don't you teach them then?"
Percy rolled his eyes. "You know I don't like violence, even against bullies who think they're in high school."
"And I don't like that they're hurting you, but there you go."
"Who're you?"
"My name is Lester. We're friends from a camp we used to go to. Perce still goes back to play camp counselor."
"Wow, what a dork."
"We're both dorks." Apollo smiled at them. "Now, didn't you invite me over to help you study?"
Percy resisted the urge to roll his eyes again. He certainly had not said anything to Apollo. Who once again appeared with impeccable timing like he was paying close attention.
"Come on, teach us a lesson."
Percy groaned. "This is your fault," he told Apollo. "If this goes wrong, I'm blaming you."
Apollo laughed and backed away.
Percy rolled his neck and did some basic stretches to make sure he was all warmed up for fighting.
Treat fighting bullies like teaching a lesson to kids at camp. Okay, he could do that.
He stepped out of the way of the first punch. "Too telegraphed, can see that coming a mile away." He grabbed the arm and pulled towards himself. The bully stumbled.
"Poor center of balance, you need to be properly rooted if you want to survive in a fight," Percy commented before kicking the person trying to jump him from behind.
"Use anything you can to be aware of your surroundings. I saw your shadow."
And so it continued, until everyone was covered in bruises and were groaning, while all he had was a few cuts from the broken glass he had forgotten about partway through the 'lesson'.
Apollo put his arm around Percy. "Nicely done. Let's go study."
Percy sighed and agreed. At least he hadn't gone too overboard. It wasn't his fault they couldn't handle a few bruises. The kids at camp handled that kind of lesson far better than them.
Apollo checked him over as soon as they were in the dorm. "Want to heal all the cuts?"
"They know there's one on my head."
"You could act clueless about it. There were no cameras to prove it, right?"
Percy considered it then sighed. "Fine, yeah, let's heal it all. Cuts are annoying to deal with, though you know that I could heal them all in the shower."
Apollo pouted at him before healing up the cuts.
"Were you following me?"
"Yes."
"...how long have you been following me?" Percy decided he couldn’t be in denial anymore.
"...a long time."
Percy eyed him warily. "Why?"
"You're interesting. Far more interesting than most demigods. You saved my sister, and other gods spoke highly of you. I wanted to know why, and then I didn't stop. And I learned about who you are as a person... that person is pretty cool, you know?"
"Gods can never be normal, can you?"
"We're not mortal, we have lived far longer than you have. You can't comprehend it."
"No kidding. You sound a bit like an obsessive stalker."
"I suppose I am. I'm not as bad as I was years and years ago. In hindsight, I wonder if Cassandra would have been so harsh if I had not been so obviously following her around. But I do get obsessive. Is that a problem?"
Percy grimaced. "Obsession can lead to abuse."
"I'd never hurt you! you're perfect the way you are." Apollo wrapped an arm around him.
"And it's a bit weird that you were stalking me for years and I didn't know."
"Can I prove myself?"
Percy looked at him. "Why now? Why not six months ago, why not wait longer?"
"I didn't want to jump right into it... I wasn't even going to do anything about it, but it was getting harder to just watch you and not talk to you at all. So I decided to try being your friend. Then I realized that you were getting more and more tense the rest of the time and relaxing more and more with me and I knew about the bullying and I could not let that go without challenge any longer. And now here we are."
Percy sighed. "I don't know..."
Apollo lifted his chin and kissed him, surprisingly gently. "Let me prove it to you, please, Percy."
Percy looked up at Apollo, suspecting that things maybe would not be so simple; how could he handle a relationship with a jealous god? An obsessive one who did not like seeing him get hurt?
A god who apparently was willing to make sure he didn't go on anymore quests, who felt like he owed Percy.
Maybe it would be worth it, to keep from having to do more quests, to keep his life somewhat normal.
But Percy knew his myths, he knew more recent stories from some of Apollo's kids, about what it could mean if Apollo was obsessed. Could he live with that?
"Would you keep helping me avoid being the hero of Olympus?" Percy found himself asking.
"Of course, they don't treat you right and it should be your choice. You deserve the break, and it's not like you can't help out, you just don't want to help those who are ungrateful, who want you dead."
Percy nodded, staring at Apollo. "Will you force me to do a quest?"
"Never. I might ask, in the future, if there's no one I believe I can trust with it, but I won't send you in without protection, without help, and you will get something out of it, I swear it. I want to see you happy more than anything."
Percy didn't quite believe him, not at the level of obsession that Apollo had been showing. But... it would be worth it. Extra breathing room from the madness of their world, someone who would help him out, who knew how to act as a friend, even if he was being stalked by that person...
"Alright," he agreed. He wanted more space, and Apollo was the way to do it. It was worth the cost.
He didn't even mind Apollo pushing him down onto the bed to make out. It kind of felt nice with Apollo.
A quiet voice in the back of his head whispered. This is a bad idea. It's going to end poorly.
Percy ignored it. He didn't care.