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Percy knew he shouldn’t, he really did, but curiosity weighed heavily in the back of his mind.
When Apollo had suddenly gone quiet, after he’d laughed loudly, sung songs, and took part for what might’ve been hours to them but what had to have been no time at all for a god who’s many domains are basically entirely centered around those things (bar like… half of them), everyone old enough to comprehend it all knew that something was up.
Will and some of the other, older, Apollo kids caught on first. Pulling Apollo away from the campfire so the younger campers didn’t have to see it if things went astray.
Apollo did not offer an explanation, only quickly saying he was needed and that he’d be back at a later date.
His kids did not push, they accepted it and moved on as they watched their father nearly scramble into the woods, a slightly frantic, searching look in his eyes.
Despite the god’s observant if frenzied gaze, Percy had managed to stalk him through the wood fairly easily, finding a comfortable and hard-to-spot place to hide relatively easily as the god finally seemed to find the thing he was looking for in the center of a small clearing at the edge of camp, near the boundary.
Percy felt like an intruder, which- wasn’t wrong. He was most certainly about to witness something he highly doubts he is supposed to see. However, he can’t really bring himself to care all that much. (that was about to change)
—-----firstperson—-------
I peaked through the thick foliage, grateful for the coverage. As much as I wished for clearer sight. Apollo had incredible hearing -the best hearing of almost every living creature if I’d heard correctly- And his sight wasn’t much worse, so I couldn’t afford to get any closer -I was honestly surprised I hadn’t been caught out already. I could only hope it stays that way.
I saw his form begin to shift, from the almost-human form he usually took around the campers, the only sign of his divinity being the unnatural sheen of his skin and eyes, to his godly-but-not-true form, presumably the one he’d use on Olympus, with his golden hair and- eye? Literally shimmering in the dim light of the moon, the other eye was not visible at all bar the actually glowing slit of a pupil, the eye of a snake? (Sometimes I forget that one of Apollo’s sacred animals are actually snakes considering his obvious hatred of most of them),
I couldn’t make out much more in the darkness bar the more hellenistic style of clothes replacing the previously casual ones. The bedsheet only covered one shoulder, and the… skirt? Was full-leg length, but had a large slit along the side that left far too little to the imagination.
Apollo seemed to shudder at the cool, biting breeze in his newly thinned and overly exposing clothes, summoning a long jacket to wrap around his form as he glanced around the clearing.
He opened his mouth, he looked like he was mentally debating something.
After a moment of deliberation, he huffed, making a decision.
”Hermes? I know you’re hiding somewhere here.”
The smell of strawberries that usually permeated the air grew nearly unbearably strong, and was joined by a gentle floral scent that, while now familiar, I still couldn’t name.
Nothing happened for a moment, when suddenly I heard a loud thump!
I had to suppress a loud yelp that tried to fight its way out of my mouth -Apollo did not have the same reservations, letting out a strangled sound as he was tackled.
”Apollo! Thank us you heard me! I honestly don’t know if I’d have made it back to Olympus.”
The person who’d launched themselves at Apollo was very familiar. The three wings and the strange ram-horned hat gave it away immediately. (If the scent hadn’t already)
Though, upon closer inspection I noticed just how ragged and unkempt they looked, and not in the ‘I just flew 300 laps of the USA and I feel great!’ Way that is usual for the overly energetic god. More in the ‘I just flew way too many laps of the Earth and I would like to collapse and never get up’ kind of way. He looked genuinely exhausted -their back was hunched as if they held the weight of the sky on their shoulders, and I know what that looks like. -their wings looked incredibly ruffled and uncomfortable, and when Apollo accidentally touched them Hermes flinched away.
”Oh Hermes,” Apollo grimaced in concern, “why would you let them get so bad? This is gonna hurt no matter how careful I am.”
Hermes hummed non-committally, he almost looked ashamed,
”I know I should’ve come to you earlier,” they started, averting their gaze “I haven’t had the wings on my ears and part of my back ones properly preened since the defeat of Gaea”
-since the defeat of Gaia? No wonder they’re so matted and painful looking!- “because I’d only ever gone to you to preen them-” Oh… that's actually… really sweet. But it’s not great that nobody else noticed the horrid state of his wings and volunteered to help.
“-but I was so busy during and after your time as a mortal I couldn’t find anyone else to do it! You know how the king is! Then after your return he piled up work too high for me to keep up with for weeks -I just didn’t have time to find you, and you’ve been nearly as busy as me anyways, with all the work you need to catch up on- you’re really hard to catch.” They rambled a bit.
’You know how the king is’? The king is obviously Zeus, but what does he mean by that? Like- is Zeus responsible for Hermes’ work load? Or is Zeus the reason Hermes couldn’t find anyone else to do it for him? There are a few implications there and none of them are good.
Does he threaten the other gods? I mean I can’t say that’s surprising but it’s still concerning. Especially if the way Apollo drew back, a terrified look in his eyes has anything to do with that.
”Did he hurt you? Hermes! Did. He. Hurt. You?”
Why is that even a concern? Holy moly, Zeus must be a horrible parent
Hermes' eyes widened, “no! No, no, no- he didn’t hurt me Apollo, don’t worry. He just increased my work load by way too much for me to live a healthy lifestyle -the usual-“
My eyes became as round as saucers- what. The usual? the usual? How much work is a god’s ’too much for a healthy lifestyle’? How much work can get a god as hyperactive as Hermes to slow down?
And even overlooking that, Hermes claims he hasn’t been hurt by Zeus. But isn’t an extreme and never-ending workload almost worse than a slap on the wrist? It’s like comparing torture to the fields of punishment, they’re both horrible and very similar in concept but the latter is a punishment often disguised as a task, so the punished don’t even know that it is a punishment -which in some circumstances can be vastly worse. Especially in a situation like work where it could well be a punishment, but, you can never be certain because- maybe there really is just a lot of work to do? It’s scummy and very manipulative, very on-brand for Zeus I can only hope the god of thieves understands that.
“-and I think he threatened some of our siblings to get them to leave me alone?
W H A T ?
I don’t know why, but Zeus had some sort of meeting with them and they’ve avoided me like the plague ever since -they only started relaxing in my presence again when you woke up after your return to Olympus. I think that he didn’t want them to use me to contact you when you were a mortal?”
Apollo let out a long sigh of relief before he got an unreadable look on his face ”That was possible?”
Hermes shook his head, “Someone else could use me to send you a message, because I would be considered the one at fault for facilitating them -so I’d have gotten the punishment, not them, and while I also could’ve sent you a message then I’d probably get a similar punishment to you -given there was nobody else involved to take the blame.”
This is sounding worse and worse with every word that comes from the messenger's mouth, and the fact they both clearly think this is normal? Dear gods.
Apollo grimaced, “yeah ok, that makes sense.” He looked at the smaller god with something that might’ve been fond concern. “Would you like to go somewhere else while I clean up your wings or are you alright staying here?”
Hermes looked thoughtful, after a minute they seemed to come to a conclusion. “I’d like to stay here, it’s unlikely anyone’s going to find us here- it’s peaceful, and I’m not particularly fond of Olympus …but I’d like to have somewhere more comfortable than the floor to sit and I’d rather not exhaust myself anymore than he already has.” They paused, “Also summon a fire- don’t think I haven’t noticed you shivering.”
Apollo rolled his eyes at that last one but didn’t deny it.
He summoned a couple beanbag chairs and then flicked his hand, a blazing fire erupted in the center for the clearing, lighting up the area significantly and bringing up the temperature by several degrees. Now in better lighting I could see the patches of glimmering scales on the deity of thieves’ skin, and the veil of shadow over their glowing eye, the other was concealed fully by said shadow.
The deity of light also had scales- but only surrounding the single snake eye- the scales gleamed an almost bronze in the darkness.
Other than the very run-down appearance of the god of thievery, I noticed one more major difference that I couldn’t earlier when we were surrounded by darkness. As Hermes walked over to one of the beanbags I realised that the darkness and mist of the night seemed to cling to him similarly to how it clung to Nico. I don’t remember the god having any connection to the underworld though? I’d have to ask Annabeth later.
When Hermes settled into one of the beanbags, they seemed to actually melt as they allowed Apollo to gently begin carding through and sorting their feathers out -cleaning out dirt and old feathers- I watched the wholeheartedly adorable scene for a few minutes before deciding it was probably my queue to leave. Clearly these two needed their privacy. I was not about to take it from them.
As I turned to leave however, Apollo locked eyes with me, stilling his movements. My eyes widened as I backed up further. But Apollo did not seem to take offense, he looked exasperated but fond enough to where I probably wasn’t going to be smited, I quickly realised he’d already noticed me, and had simply kept quiet and let me watch.
He tilted his head and raised his eyebrows, a small smile playing across his features. I smiled back sheepishly, guilty as charged. He rolled his eyes, though he didn’t lose the smile (if anything it grew), and flicked a hand my way -a clear dismissal, if not an agitated one. I gave a nod in acknowledgment as I properly started to leave, as silently as possible.
I had to suppress a laugh when I heard Hermes’ questioning, “why did you stop?” Faintly in the distance. And Apollo’s light snicker as he said “nothing brother dearest.”
This has given me plenty to think about, not all of it good. But for now- I would simply appreciate the humanity of the actions. It was strange how alien and how human the gods could be at the same time.
When the others asked what I’d seen, I simply gave them an amused look and changed topic- this little interaction was one I’d keep to myself to the grave. I doubt they’d appreciate the breach of privacy.
The feeling of warmth followed me until the end of the evening.