U for Urania

please don't laugh at her name XD

Only Human

A Greece One Shot

I hummed happily as I stared up at the stars, tracing the patterns they made with my fingers and writing down notes with my other without even looking down at the paper. Finally I snapped out of my trance and looked down at my paper "Huh how strange." I said as I stared down at the map I had made. "It seems that these two stars are growing closer but that would mean that I was going to fall in love. That cant be possible." I whispered to myself as I knitted my eyebrows together, I loved the stars and had no time for sad relationships with men.

I shook the thoughts from my head and began to pack away my things, maybe my hand had slipped when I had been recording or something. Though it would have been the first time … I was snapped out of my train of thought though when I heard annoying chiming laughter behind me. With an exasperated sigh I turned to see my eight sisters laughing in unison as there robes swayed behind them.

"We thought we might find you here sister dear, you are the only one of us who would rather be staring at the sky then being the life of the party." Thalia laughed throwing her head back to allow her brown curls to cascade down her back before turning her stone gray eyes back to me. Ugh I hated how I looked so much like her and my other sisters, I mean really they were such airheads I hated being associated with them sometimes. "Anyway I am glad we finally found you, Lady Aphrodite would like to see you in her chambers." she said and they all giggled in unison, probably hoping I was going to get in trouble.

"Fine, its not like I have important work trying to advance the human race or anything." I scoffed snapping my fingers and making my telescope disappear into a wisp of smoke. They all sneered at me as I walked past them, making a show of letting my black robe, which so clashed against there black ones, blow into there faces. The only one who didn't seem to have something rude to say to me was Clio, who even though she never strayed far from our sisters, knew how hard my job really was.

After a few minutes of walking through the clouds of Olympus I finally came upon a rather large and extravagant building, even for living in the kingdom of the gods, and knew that Aphrodite waited inside for me. With a deep breath I knocked lightly and as soon as my hand hit the door it opened up to me, revealing a sparkling white room accented with deep reds and light pinks. Yep I was definitely at the right place. "Milady called?" I said as politely as I could as I bowed to the women sitting at a vanity.

"Oh yes there you are Urania darling, I have been meaning to talk to you. It seems it is very hard to track you down though since you never seem to show up to parties with you sisters." she said scolding me like one would an untrained puppy. I stared at her in response until she finally swept me across the room and sat me down next to her on a plush couch. "Now sweetie as you know it is my responsibility to know everything about everyone here in Olympus so it had come to my attention that you my precious little servant that you seem to be very anti social." she said patting my arm gently as if comforting me about some mid life crisis.

"I am sorry milady but I am not much of a party person. If it is entertainment you are looking for I am sure my sisters can do a fine job without me. I am sure even Lord Apollo would not mind singing or performing if you asked him to." I said not quite understanding why she cared if I went to parties or not, I was far from her favorite muse as she often pointed out. She simply laughed at my answer though and pinched my cheeks as she cooed at me. It took all my strength not to slap her hand away from me.

"Oh no that is not the reason I have brought you here at all! Though you do have such a beautiful voice if you would only use it once in awhile for something other then talking about those silly stars of yours." she said with a sigh, running her perfectly manicured fingers through her strawberry blonde curls, it seemed that she had gotten tired of platinum blonde recently. "Anyway," she continued on a more cheerful note "I wanted to talk to you because Zeus and Apollo, for some strange reason, are worried about you. They think that you need some love in your life so, naturally they turned to me for help."

I scrunched my nose up at the idea but blushed a little bit when I heard that Apollo was worried about me. "That is very kind of them and of you milady but I am perfectly fine with my work, I don't need to get tangled up in some romance. Besides ask Melpomene anytime a goddess falls in love it always ends in tragedy." I said getting up and trying to back away slowly towards the door. Of course though this failed and with a simple wave of her hand Aphrodite had me tied to a chair with invisible ropes. "But I guess I could hear what you have to say." I muttered as the chair placed me right back next to her.

"I thought you might see it that way~"she laughed airily as she crossed her legs and stared at me with unblinking green eyes. "Now I can see why you would be weary of love, I know that it can end badly after all it sort of is my specialty but I have also seen the good side of it." Aphrodite said in a dreamy voice as he cuffed my cheek in her hand "Love can make your life better then you ever expected it to and often in ways you would never even expect it to. So I have been given orders to send you to go to earth to try and find someone you love but out of the kindness of my heart I am giving you this." then out of thin air came a small appeared a small ruby red bottle with a heart shaped stopper.

"As you know it is I who controls who falls in love in the human and world and this is how I do it, something I refer to as love potion number nine. A little bit of this slipped into the man of your desires drink, state your name, and simple as that the man is yours." she said in a low voice, snapping her fingers to unleash my bonds and holding out the bottle to me. "I have never let anyone but myself near the stuff but I do really want to see you happy for once Urania so take it. But it will only work once per person so use it wisely." she cautioned me, running her fingers down my cheeks and giving me a genuine smile.

I gulped and couldn't think of anything to say, it was the first time in a very long time that she had been nice to me … or anyone besides Apollo had been nice to me for that fact. I tried to tell her thank you but only managed to nod but luckily she understood. "Don't thank me just be careful about who you choose, now go on Apollo is waiting for you at the stables. He will be your escort on Earth since he has a little bit more experienced then you." she said and with a wave of her hand dismissed me.

I nodded frantically and bowed to her once more before running as fast I could to the stables where, as promised, the familiar face of the sun god waited for me even if he was distracted with a small furry thing in his hands. "Dawn giving you issues again Apollo?" I teased as I saw him trying to force the small calico kitten into a small side car on his chariot. See humans had this thing where they though he favored cattle but in reality his favorite animals were cats.

"When is she not giving me issues?" he mumbled finally letting the kitten go with a sigh. I laughed as she ran directly over to me and wrapped her way through my legs. "... traitor." he said with a small smile playing across his lips as he watched me lift her up and hold her close to my face. "So anyway on to more serious business, do you know what you are going to call yourself on earth? And you surely aren't going in that are you?" he asked dumbfounded pointing to my robes which were constantly showing the movement of the stars.

I blushed slightly under his steady green gaze and I quickly shook my head, closing my eyes and quickly changing into a more simple long dark red tunic style dress with a gold shall. "Wow you will definitely have those mortals falling over you." he said rubbing the back of his head and I could almost swear that I saw a light pink dust across his tanned cheeks. "Anyway you still need an alternative name down there, I go by Heracles. I think a good name for you would be … Nia." he said thoughtfully as he looked me over.

"Apollo, or should I saw Heracles, you just shortened my name is all." I said shaking my head before taking my place next to him in the chariot and allowing Dawn to rest at my feet. "But I guess it could be worse besides I really don't plan on staying there long, all I really want to do is get back to work to be honest." I said waiting impatiently for him to hitch his horses to the chariot.

"Nia please cant you just relax for a little while. Humanity can survive without you for a day or two. Besides I think you happiness is a lot more important then that." he said gently giving me a dazzling smile when he finally stepped up next to me. I blushed not only at his sweet words but also because I realized how close we were required to be on the trip to earth. "Ah it seems you are not as emotionless as you want people to believe." he jested pointing to the blush that was on my cheeks as he snapped the reins in one fluid motion.

"I never said I didn't have emotions I just don't have time for stupid emotions when I am trying to advance the human race." I pouted but seeing the skeptical look he was giving me I let out a sigh and forced a smile on my face. "Though I guess I could relax for a few day for you at least Heracles." I said and felt a tingly feeling in the pit of my stomach, somehow feeling that calling each other by our 'human' names was a some what intimate experience that brought us closer … and I suddenly found myself actually enjoying being so close to him.

Two very very long days later

"I have put centuries of work into humans and this is how they repay me?" I growled pushing my way out of the bar and into the dark ally way, trying hopelessly to wipe the wine off my dress. After about five minutes of human failing I finally just banished the spot, not caring if anyone saw me at this point. Just as I was about to take off on my own I saw a familiar green eyes man walking towards me and I let out a sigh of relief. "Okay Heracles I think I have officially failed my task, can we go home now?" I begged grabbing on to my arm.

At the very mention of me going home without a man though a sudden flash of lightening landed inch's from me and the over powering smell of perfume surrounded me. "I don't think Zeus or Aphrodite is going to allow that." he chuckled hooking his arm threw mine and leading me out of the ally way to the main road that was lit up by the moons glow. "Come on now Nia I found a really nice spot that I think you might enjoy." he said guiding me down the winding streets of Athens.

"Okay fine as long as I get away from those sad drunk excuses for humans." I sighed, happy to feel is familiar warmth wrap around me in the chilly night. We kept walking and I closed my eyes trusting Apollo enough to not let me run into anything before we finally came to a stop. I opened my eyes to see a fountain in the middle of a small tiled court yard. "What is so special about this place?" I asked with one eyebrow raised.

"Come look at the water." he said pushing me gently to the fountains edge. I did as instructed and smiled down at the water, it was so clear that I could count all the stars in the sky and moonlight seemed to make it glow faintly. "It is simple but it is beautiful isn't it?" he asked looking at me expectantly as if hoping he had pleased me in some small way.

I sat on the fountains edge and dipped my hand into the cool water, distorting the image of the night time sky. "It really is Heracles. Now can't you see why I love the stars so much? They are so tiny but in reality they are so much more then what they appear." I said cupping come water in my hand and staring down at my reflection. "It seems that no human can share my love for it though." I sighed deeply throwing the water into the sky and watching as the moon turned it into liquid silver that cascaded back down over Heracles and I.

"Well maybe no human can … and I may be the god of the sun but I understand exactly how you feel." Heracles said with a gulp as he took a seat next to me and placed his hand over mine gently. At his touch I felt warmth radiate over me in a loving glow and it had nothing to do with his above average body heat. "Nia … I really do want to make you happy." he whispered to me as his face drew steadily closer to my own. Before I knew it I felt warm lips pressing softly against mine sending a pleasurable fire surging through all of my veins.

"I think you have succeeded in that." I said breathlessly when I finally pulled away from his kiss, even though all I wanted to do was return to feeling him so close to me. "I think I did find love here after all." I chuckled a little bit as he continued to kiss down my neck and shoulder, leaving a burning sensation where ever his lips met. "I love you too" he whispered in my ear happily.

As he continued to smother me in gentle kisses I took the small bottle of potion Aphrodite had given me out of my bag. "I wont be needing this any more." I thought with a small smile as I crushed it into dust in my hand and blew it away into the night, hoping maybe it would just reach the stars.

A/N: So if you can not tell I am obsessed with Greek Mythology and out came this story! I am sorry if Greece seems a bit OOC but I kind of had to adapt it so he could be Apollo. I got the idea because Apollo trained all of the muses and seeing as this was the only U name I could find I kind of strung together this sweet little one shot. I think it came out better then expected so I hope you like it and next time it will be Prussia :D (can you believe we are down to the last five?)