Chapter Text
The view through the passenger window brought back too much nostalgia for Naomi from when she was younger, just an overly adventurous small-town girl. Now, after a long time of not being able to visit her hometown and family since her rise to stardom, she has been able to completely clear her schedule with no concerts, recordings, rehearsals, or anything else to occupy her time this Christmas.
Tuning in again to the conversation inside the car between her assistant, Ava, and her son, Will, she couldn't contain the smile on her face. Her little sunshine had already turned six, too fast her little boy was growing up and the threat of him being taken away from her was becoming more and more real, Naomi cursed her younger self every chance she got for being so naïve and stupid for falling in love with a bright smile and eyes the colour of the sky.
A little squeaky voice shouting "mama" made her snap out of her mind and turn around to look into Will's bright eyes. Naomi could see how restless and excited her son was if his constant bouncing in the seat was any indication. She couldn't help but let out a small laugh at the excitement. A small part of her heart regretted taking him so far away from his family, but after that conversation years ago with Apollo, she decided it was best to be by his side.
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Naomi had just left the studio in the penthouse apartment she shared with her band in New York after a big day full of recording for her third album, after winning two Grammys this year, her producer had decided to star producing the next album of her career with some unconnected singles for the fans to enjoy. Although at this point Naomi just wanted to walk across the kitchen to get something to eat and go to bed, she was too tired.
Following her plan, she walked towards the kitchen to open the fridge and see if there was anything edible she could pop in her mouth and satisfy her stomach, when in the background she heard the murmur of a voice she didn't quite recognise. She closed the fridge and stood silently, trying to listen to the voice as he mentally remembered where each member of her band was, she knew that Ava and Sebas had stayed in the studio working on the last recording and the room was completely soundproofed, Ethan and Jacob had gone out for dinner and drinks while Ayla had gone to bed hours before.
She concentrated again to listen to the voice and determine where this unfamiliar voice was, when a fear gripped her heart as she noticed it was coming from the doorway of her little sunbeam. Without a second thought, she grabbed the shotgun she had stored in one of the corners of the hall wardrobe as her father had taught her when she was a child, and walked slowly to the door of the room.
Without much delay, she opened the door and pointed at the intruder standing at the end of her son's bed.
"Move a bit and you won't get out of here safely."
"Naomi, honey, always so wild, that's something I've always adored about you." The voice, or rather, the man turned around with a bright smile and eyes the colour of gold itself.
For a second, Naomi thought she had gone mad and the nights of staying up because of overwork had finally kicked in, because it wasn't possible that after almost three years since she last saw him he was nor wight in front of her, in her flat and with golden eyes instead of the slivers of sky she met them with.
"Explain right now how you could possibly be here and what you're doing here." Not a hint of hesitation left to be seen before her train of thought continued to derail, she settled the shotgun better to emphasise her words.
Apollo gave a low sigh and looked back to her with a small smile that it she squinted hard enough she could see the sadness hanging on it.
"Can we tal somewhere else? I'd hate to wake the little sunbeam." The loving tone Apollo used when he addressed her son made an anger curl in her heart, bitter an viscous.
With one last glance at Will to check that he was still well and sleeping, she looked back at the man in front of her and nodded for him to follow her, putting the shotgun down but not quite letting go of it for anything she might need.
Sitting the two of them on the three seater sofa in her living room, Naoimi didn't look down at any point, enough had she suffered for a jerk while going through a pregnancy alone and a two year upbringing without the need for that man in her life, but here he was and Naomi was ready to beat him up if need be.
"How did you get into my house? I don't think any of my partners would open the door and let you into my son's room." At Naomi's harsh tone, Apollo shrugged for a brief second but quickly recovered.
"Well, I seem to remember telling you I was a god so I can materialise wherever I want."
"What, you really expect me to believe that?" Apollo gave another sigh of despair at Naomi's refusal to believe it.
"I know it's complicated to understand, but I'm the Greek god Apollo, and that's why I'm here. Will is a demi-god, he is still quite small, but as he grows older, his powers will begin to manifest and his scent will become more and more perceptible to monsters and-"
"Wait, wait, what do you mean by monsters, and what do you mean by powers?" Naomi brought her hands to her copper blonde hair and tangled her fingers in her curls. She was already starting to notice the headache coming back stronger.
"I know you've noticed that Will sometimes claims to see strange things that aren't there or can come to understand that a child his age shouldn't, you may have wanted to ignore it, you still can but there will be a time when it will be too much and that's why I'm here." Apollo turned his gaze to Naomi's chocolaty one, and a pained smile appeared on his face. "If all goes well, when he turns twelve, a satyr will come to you and Will to explain to him about this whole world and take him to a safe place for him, it's a camp I founded where all demigods can be safe without being attacked."
Tears welled up in Naomi's eyes at the possibility of her little boy being attacked, that little ball of happiness that couldn't stand upright without bumping into everything, at his need to run everywhere. Painfully, she raised her gaze and focused on Apollo's golden ones.
"You'll take my baby away from me?" Her voice came out broken and watery as some tears managed to break free from the prison exerted by her eyelids "You have no right to come here after disappearing three years ago, leaving me alone when I needed you most to come now to tell me that you'll take my child away from me in a few years just because you didn't know how to keep it in your trousers." Rage poured from the pores of her body, and tears fell without resistance.
"I'm sorry, but it's the best thing for both you and Will. He won't be at risk, and you'll still be able to see him and talk to him."
Naomi completely ignored Apollo and continued to let out her anger.
"Do you even care? I don't care if you're a god, a king or the ambassador to Wisconsin, you don't have the fucking right to come here, you don't have the right to want me to go along with all this shit you've involved a two year old in, you don't have the right to call him your little ray of sunshine because he's nothing of yours and never will be." With that last said, she got up from he couch and stood in front of the god. "Now, get the fuck out of my house if you don't want to get a hole in your face."
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Naomi came back to the present after a particularly loud scream from Will, his vocal cords were too loud, and having the god of music as a father didn't help much either, seeing the dirt and gravel road that led to the ranch of Naomi's parents and Will's grandparents. Naomi had to bite her lower lip to stop a giggle from coming out of them and earning a complaint from the smaller blonde for laughing at him.
"Mum, Mum, Grandma and Grandpa, Grandpa and Grandma are there, I can see them!" Will shouted again with his chubby baby hands gripping his saddle belt tightly.
"Yes, sweetie, we're coming, just a few more minutes and we'll be with them." Another couple of little squeals of excitement came from Will as he continued to bounce in his seat.
When the car stopped in the small courtyard before the front door, Will rushed Naomi to unbuckle him quickly without stopping moving happening to earn a few scoldings from his mother to get him unbuckled as quickly as possible. Once unbuttoned, Will shot off to where his grandparents were waiting with open arms, Naomi could only smile at the sight she witnessed.
"Well, see you in early January, Naomi, anything you need you know where to find me."
"I know, Ava, don't worry, besides, thanks for bringing us, we didn't need to." Naomi thanked her as she grabbed her bags.
"You were on your way to my destination, besides, it's much more entertaining to travel listening to Will's ramblings than it is to be in silence listening to the same three songs." Ava complained, throwing her head back dramatically.
With a wave of hands they waved goodbye again and Naomi watched the car drive away until she couldn't spot it anymore, with a deep breath she turned around and smiled hugely at the beautiful memories that came to her mind as she walked towards the entrance being greeted by her mother with a kiss on the cheek along with the information that the rest of the family would be here soon.
Naomi, as much as she loved the music and her fans, it could never compare to the feeling she got every time she could see her whole family, all together.
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Always been one of the favourite holidays of the Solace family, they were a big family made up of two parents and five children, with each one of them with their partners and their respective children and that's not counting the uncles, aunts and cousins that there were, that's why Christmas was always important for them, being a big family they could hardly be all together in the same place but for years they had implemented the rule that at Christmas you had to attend if you wanted to, something that Naomi had to break due to her career and the Christmas concerts in New York and Miami making it impossible to attend, consequently Will couldn't attend either and although Naomi's mother assured her that nothing was wrong and that they understood, she could see how it really hurt her that neither her daughter nor her grandson could be there.
But this year was different; this year they were all there after three and a half years without seeing them through a phone screen. Naomi could tell how the whole house was more alive than ever to the sound of non-stop laughter and almost all of it belonging to her little sunshine running around the house being chased by one of his older cousins or trying to help his grandma.
For a second, Naomi forgot all about the whole gods, monsters, and powers thing, it was just her and her huge family at a Christmas dinner until her whirlwind crashed into her legs, wrapping his arms around Naomi's legs and bouncing up and down.
"Whoa, I think that's enough sugar for you tonight, Will. If you keep this up, you're not going to last for Grandpa's story time." She stroked the golden curls of Will, who pouted at the above statement.
Story time was a tradition that Naomi's own grandfather implemented in the family for after Christmas dinner, certainly although its name is “story time” they didn't tell any stories but stories from the childhoods of both themselves and the children's parents. When Naomi's grandfather passed away years ago, her father decided to continue the tradition and it became something really looked forward to by all the younger part of the family.
"Can I help Nana make dessert? I tried to help with the soup and vegetables before, but Aunt Lyn said I couldn't because it would hurt me, but Nana said I could help with the dessert, and I had to ask you." Naomi couldn't help but give him a tender kiss on his forehead, earning a giggle from Will.
"If you promise to be good and do everything Nana tells you to do."
Will nodded vigorously and ran off towards the kitchen, calling for his grandmother. Naomi laughed at the energy contained in that little body.
The preparations went on without a hitch, with Naomi chatting with her siblings and helping her father set up the living room for story time, when a shout calling her name from the kitchen made her drop everything and run off in the direction of the kitchen. There she found her mother clutching Will's hands and trying to calm him as he could only cry.
"Mum? What happened?" Naomi approached worriedly, examining her son for any injuries, but couldn't find anything.
"I don't know, we were mixing the ingredients for dessert, and he suddenly started crying. I've been trying to calm him down."
"I'll take care of it, don't worry, mum." Her mother nodded and released Will's hands. Naomi reached over and squatted down, caressing her little boy's cheeks. "Will, honey, what's wrong?"
"It hurts, my throat hurts and it itches, it hurts my eyes too, mommy, it hurts." Will cried, and Naomi began to panic as she couldn't find what was wrong until her eyes focused on red welts appearing on her little boy's skin.
Naomi's mind began to work back and forth until she saw the hazelnuts on the kitchen counter next to the other ingredients for dessert. Will's symptoms began to fall into place at that moment.
She urgently carried Will in her arms and turned to her mother. "Will is having an allergic reaction. Do you still have the shots for it?"
"In the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, where I always leave them."
As soon as she answered, Naomi rushed off to the bathroom, keeping Will's condition updated in her mind, ‘there's still time, he hasn't complained yet that he can't breathe,’ Naomi thought with relief. In the bathroom, Naomi left the little blonde sitting on the toilet bowl and started rummaging through the bathroom medicine cabinet with no success in finding anything. In anger and desperation, she started rummaging through the other drawers with no success.
"Come on, it has to be here, please, I know it has to be here." She mutters in desperation as out of the corner of her eye she saw something golden in the open medicine cabinet that wasn't there before, as she approached the cabinet she saw that it looked a lot like epinephrine but this one was gold and there was a glowing liquid like gold inside along with lilac and orange flecks. Naomi grabbed the injection with suspicion and turned to Will, who was leaning against the wall and looking glassy-eyed with tears streaking down his flushed cheeks.
Naomi looked at the injection in her hand again with doubt, but moved over to where her son was and squatted down in front of him.
"Hey, honey, you see this? This is going to help you feel better, but it's going to hurt a little. You have to be brave for me, okay?" Without waiting for a response, she injected the epinephrine into Will's right thigh and waited until the golden liquid was gone.
Carefully, she cradled Will in her arms and got up to walk towards the lounge, not before giving a thank you to the nothingness before exiting the bathroom. Once outside, she went straight to the living room and sat there, cradling Will, who was shaking with terrible sobs and clutching Naomi's Christmas jumper in his hands.
A while later, Naomi's father, Samuel, came into the room with a cup of hot chocolate and a small smile.
"Grandpa made you something to make you feel better, sunshine." Naomi watched her father offer the mug to Will, who grabbed the mug with trembling hands. Naomi's heart was in her stomach, and tears were gathering in her eyes, but she refused to cry in front of Will. "Dinner's almost ready. Why don't you go to the cousins and sit with them?"
Will nodded slowly and, with shaky steps, walked to the dining room where one of his older cousins was waiting to pick him up in his arms and carry him to the table with the others.
Once both father and daughter were alone, Naomi let out the tears that were building up in her eyes. "God, I'm such a horrible mother."
"Naomi, baby, don't say that." Samuel picked up Naomi's hands and stroked them with his thumbs. "You are a wonderful mother, you are raising a magnificent boy, Naomi, this is not your fault, it's something you couldn't have known."
Naomi could only cry more, she ached with the guilt of not being able to tell her parents, her family, that in a few years they would not be able to see Will, that her crying was not only for this event but for all the other situations she had to live through, the work she has had to exercise on her own without help from anyone while at the same time working on her career so that in the end all that effort would be returned to her by taking her little boy away from her.
"My dear child, don't blame yourself for this, believe me, you are doing well, we raised you as a good girl, and you are doing the same, be proud of that magnificent boy and don't sink into guilt that isn't worth it." With a smack on Naomi's knees, Samuel got up from the sofa and stretched his back. "I'm too old for this, come on, let's go to dinner, I'm sure your mother's stew will make you feel much better."
Naomi laughed and escorted her father into the living room, kissing Will's full head of golden curls and then sitting down next to him.