Chapter Text
Ok so this might not have been his brightest idea, Percy was brave enough to admit that. It’s just- well, the water sparkles so beautifully so close to the surface, and everything has such vibrant color, can you really blame him for trying to see what else was up there? Well, you definitely could. His dad and big brother definitely do, but still. Of course Percy wanted to explore. Gods, he was nearly 500 years old, practically an adult, and he had yet to see much more than Atlantis itself. And he gets that his dad is very protective of him, he’s the baby in the family and all, but he’s not breakable. It was unfair to expect him to be happy whilst he was practically locked up in his room in the city, nary seeing the light of day.
And so, for the last few months, Percy had been sneaking out of the palace in the early mornings, even before the dawn of day broke the sky above, just to swim to the surface and watch the world wake up. He was always gone by the time his parents rose, so it shouldn’t have caused much of a problem, but of course, here he was, a good few hundred miles away from Atlantis and the sun had already begun to go up. He’d been watching the clouds pass by, easily swimming with the waves and somehow the current had carried him far away from home. He would never get back before his parents noticed his absence and honestly he was kind of lost. He could see an island in the distance and he’d never gone on land alone, so if he was already in trouble, why not use his temporary freedom to explore more.
His form was capable of transformation, so he never had to struggle like a fish out of water, but he also seldomly got the chance to practice walking, and so his knees were extraordinarily wobbly as he climbed the shore. He’d never been out late enough to see the sun past sunrise, and he was captivated by its beauty. Rays hit his face like warm, gentle kisses, and he lent back on the rock he was sitting on to enjoy the simple pleasure. The sky was clear by now, all clouds forgotten and the blue promised a stunning day ahead. This really wasn’t all that bad, he had no clue why his dad was so worried.
He could hear something crash against the rocky ground. Startled, he sat up. Hopefully it wasn’t a human trying to kidnap him or worse-
No, in the distance, a chariot gleamed bright golden, so bright indeed, that Percy wanted to turn his head away. He did not.
In front of the chariot, horses with wings and brightly flickering manes neighed. He could hear them whispering to each other, some loudly announcing their hunger whilst others gossiped. He was familiar with the species, of course, they were one of his fathers most treasured accomplishments, and he couldn’t help but agree. They looked majestic.
Then, Percy noticed Him. A person -man-, with hair the color of his chariot and sun-kissed skin. He wore a fashionable chiton the color of ivory and he seemed perfect beyond comprehension. A god, then. Percy knew of them, of course he did. His father cursed them every time he was ordered to attend a meeting on Mount Olympus. Personally, he’d never been permitted to join his father, much to his chagrin. Still, just from his teachings he could rule out Hades, Dionysus and probably Ares, the guy didn’t look like the angry type. That left Zeus, Hermes and Apollo. But Zeus was supposed to look really similar to his dad and this man definitely did not, so either Apollo or Hermes.
Then it hit him like a high tide, of course it was Apollo. He’d just watched the man pull up the sun, his horses had fire in their hair and he looked delectable. Apollo had always been one of his favorites, he seemed like a genuinely nice person and Percy wondered if he should approach him.
But before he could come to a conclusion, the man -Apollo- spotted him and began to shout. Surprised and a little scandalized, Percy jumped right back into the water, not caring for the troubles above.
No one treated him like that in Atlantis, likely because everyone knew he was the favorite child of the God of the Sea and also a prince, but his heart still pounded in his chest from shock. On his journey back home, he contemplated the interaction again and again, until he finally realized he hadn’t even heard what the god had shouted. Who knew? It could’ve been something friendly, though typically you wouldn’t shout an invitation or the like. Then again, it might’ve just been genuine surprise, the island wasn’t big and Percy had seen no one else there, maybe the god had just expected a bit of alone time.
The more he thought about it, the sorrier he felt, and he determined to go back as soon as possible to apologize. Apollo was no particularly angry god, and so he likely would be safe to meet him again.
He explained away his late arrival, though he knew that Triton at the very least was probably a bit suspicious. It was unlike him to be late especially without a good excuse.
Sneaking out again proved to be a fairly complicated endeavor as his weeks were filled with preparations and meetings for the upcoming ball. The ball that would announce his betrothal. Percy gulped. He knew he would soon be reaching maturity and as such, would be given a spouse, but he didn’t know how to feel about being matched with someone he barely knew. His father would surely do an extensive background check but still. And besides, the ball was still months away, he didn’t really get why he was already so involved in preparations.
Still, finally a week and a half later, he got a free day and used it to try and find the island. Since he hadn’t really been watching where he was going, it proved to be a bit difficult but he did manage to locate it after a while. At this point the sun already stood high in the sky and he thought it was probably unlikely to meet Apollo again there, especially because he had no way of knowing if this was a regular spot for the olympian or not.
So he could barely believe his luck when he saw the golden chariot once more.
Striding up the shore, this time slightly more confident in his skills, he had thankfully kept a few snacks in his bag to feed the potential horses with. He couldn’t see Apollo, but surely he wasn’t too far from his chariot.
Carefully, Percy approached the horses head on, that began to talk quite loudly once they saw him.
“Look the boy from earlier“
“Master will be so happy“
“Hey how do we even call for him? This seems like a serious oversight“
“Guys, he has sugar cubes!“
The neighing stopped. Indeed, Percy had sugar cubes. He held a hand out, palm side up, to feed the first of the steeds.
“Hi guys, my name’s Percy! Your hair is pretty cool!“
The chatter resumed but Percy didn’t care much. He pet the snout of a few of the horses that seemed to appreciate the gesture a lot.
“Hello, intruder“
Percy nearly jumped a foot in the air. He hadn’t heard Apollo approaching.
“Hello, my name is Percy, my lord“, sue him, so he was taught manners.
Percy held his hand out, with what he hoped to be a sensible smile on his face. Apollo looked at his hand, then up at him, then at his hand again. He shook it.
“Hello Percy. I take it you know my name already.“
He nodded. Suddenly, his knees felt weak all over again.
“Now, care to tell me Percy, what you’re doing on my sacred Island?“
Shit, this was er- Delos? Percy had never been a good student.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t want to intrude. I just came across it a few days ago and wanted to enjoy the sun“
Apollo leered slightly and Percy began to flush when he realized the connotation of his words. Oops.
“Oh well, that’s interesting then, because normally the island wouldn’t let you approach at all. But if you just wanted to enjoy the sun-“ he gestured up and down his body “-here I am. Hope you enjoy“
“Oh, no, I’m sorry, I didn’t I wouldn’t-“
Apollo laughed at his floundering.
“Nothing to worry about, beautiful.“
In all his time underwater, never had their been a man that dared to speak to him like this and Percy was kind of shocked to admit that he liked it.
Apollo could obviously tell that Percy wasn’t used to talk like that because he turned it down a bit after that. They had a bit of a talk, where Percy told him about what exactly his horses wanted, because apparently not even gods could speak to all animals all the time.
And his first impression had been true, Apollo had simply been a bit surprised because the island was usually desolate and he’d been slightly concerned when Percy hadn’t come out of the water again. In turn, Percy showed him his natural tail, which Apollo apparently found very beautiful, because he kept on mentioning it, making him blush bright red.
Before he could feel it, an afternoon was gone and he panicked, because he still had to make the trip back and if Triton noticed he’d probably be locked up for about a thousand years.
Apollo was very accommodating though, and let him leave with the promise of a new meeting whenever he had time. Simply calling his name would apparently make him appear, so that was pretty practical.