Hey guys! So this is my first piece in a long while. It's just a one shot, inspired by the fact that the priestesses of Apollo, particularly in Troy, had to be virgins. Why, you ask? Because they then became his brides, just as Rachel does, when she accepts his gift. Just FYI
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The first time he shows up at her front door, it's actually just the door to the bedroom in the Big House Chiron set her up with. He takes her by the hand (she ignores the tingles that erupt there, he's a god, she thinks, of course you'll feel his power) and leads her to a small hill in the forest where Percy and the others play capture the flag. He's set a cave into the hill, she knows he created it because she's learned every nook and cranny of the camp due to her solitary journeys. The cover is purple silk, shot with gold, like sunlight. Two large automatons (at least, she assumes they are) stand guard on either side, cobras. Torches line the path leading up to the curtain.
Apollo leads her inside, where she finds the room of her dreams. Music blares from invisible speakers, and canvases line the rough hewn walls. A large bed is hidden from view by more curtains, but a throne sits place of pride on a small dais in the centre of the cavern. Rachel wanders inside, and makes her way to the closest canvas and picks up the charcoal.
He sits and watches her for a while. He realizes that she was a good choice, indeed, she's totally unique, and perhaps that's why he loves her already.
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It takes Rachel a while before she starts becoming more social with the campers whom she didn't meet during the Battle of Manhattan. Percy is a dear friend. And Annabeth has warmed up to her now that she's no longer competition. She laughs to herself every time she thinks of that. No man would EVER look at her the way Percy looks at Annabeth. Not now, anyway.
Until Chiron takes pity on her ignorance, and brings her books on her god's history. But she'd rather hear it from someone who was there. Chiron explains that he has no choice but to love her, its the true burden she bears. He's loved them all, even the one that betrayed him during the time of Troy. Soon after Chiron leaves, she picks up the books and reads them with a hunger she's never felt for knowledge before. It's all there, the stories she knew from childhood, written as though they're fact (because they are), and pieces she didn't know. As she reads, she finds herself hating Cassandra, doesn't understand why anyone would leave him, ever.
As she reads, she finds herself falling in love with him, and it scares her.
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Apollo shows up at her door not long after. It doesn't take long before he's figured out what happened. She can't keep it from him, and wouldn't want to; he's been betrayed enough to last for eternity. She explains where she'd gotten the information from, why she couldn't stop digging through his past. He understands, he assures her, then shocks her when he asks if she has any questions. At her blank face, he chuckles; he can keep no secrets from her, he tells her, that to do so would ruin everything. What everything entails, she's not sure.
So while she bombards him with questions, from the childish to the profound, he begins looking at her drawings. Minute detail, the Gift has directed her fingers here, and proven her skill in both the mortal, and the divine. Each line drawn with an almost careless perfection, as though she knew the mark would be what she needed, and she was in a hurry to finish the art. He appreciates art, as well he should, and knows no other of the women who preceded her could have done this, given sight from the visions quite like this.
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As her school year trudges on with painful monotony, she misses him. He would never come here, she knows, this place that stunk of mortal ineptitude. She dreams every night, when not of things that have or may yet come to pass, then of golden halls and sun warmed grass.
But this night, it is different. She wakes on a bed of silk the colour of melted butter, dressed in a silk gown, with her hair braided and beaded in the old ways. Truly she looks like one of the Goddesses, she sees herself in a glass and doesn't indulge in false modesty. So when she steps into the golden hall to look for him, she knows what he wants, and what her response will be. She finds him on a balcony overlooking the sea. Mediterranean waters lap gently not inches from the marble floor, and when she whispers his name, it is the only sound to be heard. He turns, and she's stunned into silence, one which does not last the night.
When she wakes the next morning in her mortal bed in Connecticut, only the blood on her thighs and a distinct soreness prove her memories were not just more dreams.
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He doesn't go visit her for a long time after that night, regretting what he has stolen from her. But he cannot return her innocence now, and it is useless to try. But she's taken a hold of him that none of the others ever could. She understands him, cares about the feelings behind the mask of gold. Laughs at his horrible haiku, and sighs dreamily at the epics he has created. He goes to Aphrodite, who simply smiles, and hands him a flower, telling him he'll know when the time is right. When he visits his father, on his throne, his father informs him it is long past time he took a wife.
So he goes on a short trip. Mr. Dare is not a man easily intimidated, but Apollo hasn't learned every trick in the book for nothing. When he leaves, he leaves with a blessing.
He goes to her, and tells her everything. Emotions, fears, hopes and dreams. Feels distinctly mortal when she holds him close and assures them that they will get through everything from here on out together. And when she places his hand on her already swollen belly, he cries. This child will not be half-blooded. Their marriage takes place before that, and her immortality joins with his in their child.
A girl is born into the camp, for Rachel has not left her post. He'll come to her when he can, and she doesn't want to disappoint. He won't stay faithful forever, for all that she's eternally young now, but he'll always come back, and that's what remains important to her.
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