Disclaimer: I don't own Trials of Apollo
TOApril day fifteen: "Shopping But..."
Apollo?
The god perked up as the call resounded through his essence; he recognised the voice instantly as Will's and immediately honed in on whatever his son had to say. It was unusual for Will to call him directly – he usually only heard this particular son saying his name when he was talking about him to someone else, or during a healing prayer, but this wasn't the latter and it was certainly directed at him. The questioning call told Apollo that much.
I know deliveries aren't your thing, Dad-
No, they were Hermes', and his younger brother got rather territorial about other gods treading on his domains, which Apollo couldn't exactly fault him for when it was a pretty standard godly thing. A 'this is my domain, back the Hades off,'sort of thing.
-but the Hermes campers can't get hold of their dad and I really, really need this delivery.
Oh, right. Hermes was off on some super-important delivery for Zeus and had been for a week or two. Apollo was pretty certain Hermes had made sure Camp Half-Blood was fully stocked before leaving, though – they were, hands' down, his favourite customers, likely because it meant he got to drop in on his kids without the Ancient Laws breathing down his neck – so what could Will need that couldn't wait?
Capture the Flag went badly last night. Monsters were bolder than normal, the Ares campers seemed to be mad about something… Well, the last delivery didn't have as much ambrosia and nectar as normal and after yesterday the infirmary's all out and we just got another new arrival which went badly, so Dad if there's any way you can get some more to us asap that'd be really great. Thanks, Will.
What did he mean, Hermes hadn't delivered as much as normal? Hermes knew better than to skimp on the medical deliveries – Apollo had made sure of it (his little brother would forever owe him for the Cow Incident and generally knew better than to push his luck against him).
Except he hadn't had much warning before Zeus sent him off on that delivery, had he? Probably not enough time to source as much as he usually did. Fine, Apollo would give him the benefit of the doubt for the time being – if it was because of Zeus then Olympus knew he hadn't had any choice in the matter – and push Hermes' uncharacteristically poor delivery to one side to deal with later, once the other god was back.
In the meantime, Apollo had a son in desperate need of supplies, and as he was the god of healing that came under his domain. He didn't know how Hermes sourced the deliveries for the demigods but that didn't matter because ambrosia and nectar were more or less everywhere on Olympus. He had his own stock for snacking on even just in his palace, so with a flicker of a thought he materialised in his lounging room – the one he used when he wanted peace and quiet, scattered with scrolls, parchments and books of half-written poetry he'd finish one day, maybe – and snatched up the jar of ambrosia he kept on the desk, and then the bottles of nectar next to it.
Was that enough? Well, they didn't know how long Hermes would be gone for, and the demigods were forever getting themselves in scrapes – case in point, he could feel Will's healing hymn starting to reverberate through him as his son worked with what he had and automatically channelled his power towards his son without even bothering to check what he was doing with it because he knew Will would never abuse it – so the more the better, right?
Apollo ended up flitting all through his palace, grabbing all the ambrosia and nectar he could find (he'd be able to leech some off of Artemis later, probably; she'd understand why his supply had been needed elsewhere, it wasn't like she didn't have demigod maidens who also used the stuff for healing) and adding it to a chest he snapped into existence for easier transportation and storage.
Will was tiring; the injury must be serious. Apollo let the floodgates open a little more on his own power, careful not to exceed what Will could handle (the last thing he wanted to do was incinerate his own son), before doing one last check that he'd gathered up enough ambrosia and nectar to hopefully keep the camp stocked until Hermes came back and dissolving into light.
He appeared in the Big House, but not the infirmary – he didn't want to distract Will with a dramatic entrance – and got an incredibly unimpressed look from Dionysus.
"Since when were you the delivery boy?" his brother asked dryly. Apollo – Will and the new camper – didn't have time for the snark.
"Since our father didn't give Hermes time to stock the infirmary – my domain – properly before sending him off on some top-secret delivery," he dismissed, walking straight past the other god.
Dionysus knew when to keep his mouth shut sometimes.
The infirmary was not in a state of panic, because his children were better than that, but there was an air of desperation in it nonetheless. The beds were full of campers, no doubt from last night's Capture the Flag, and in one corner he could see and feel the golden glow of his own power melding with and boosting Will's as his son hunched over an unmoving figure. Blood splattered from the door to that corner, and Nico di Angelo was quietly mopping up what he could without getting in the way of the healers.
Apollo wasted no time in breezing past the rest of the beds and inserting himself next to Will, snapping himself into clean scrubs in the process. One look at the girl – her elfin features marked her as undoubtedly a child of Hermes (no wonder Will had been so desperate to get hold of the god and confused when they couldn't) – and he grabbed a bottle of nectar from the chest to dribble into her mouth.
That was what got Will's attention.
"Dad?"
"One delivery of ambrosia and nectar," he confirmed. Will's shoulders sagged in relief.
They held off on any conversation until the girl was stable, pulled back by the combination of Will's healing and the godly food, with Apollo joining Chiron and the rest of his children in backing up Will as instructed (god of healing, yes. Technically his domain, yes. Will's territory, absolutely).
"Thanks, Dad," Will sighed when he finally stepped back, stripping off blood-stained gloves and looking exhausted. Apollo snapped all of them out of their dirty scrubs and into clean ones before letting Nico sidle in to wrap an arm around Will, who clearly needed to rest for a few hours, minimum. "How much did you-"
He caught sight of the chest on the floor next to Apollo and his eyes widened.
"This was all I could gather quickly," Apollo apologised. "If you need more-"
"Dad, that's so much," Will gaped. "That'll keep us stocked for months. How? Hermes said he was running low."
"Hermes is off running errands for my father for an unknown amount of time with no prior warning," Apollo explained. "I assume he could only give you what he already had in his warehouse before he had to leave."
"Oh." Will swayed on the spot and Nico's arm around him tightened. The rest of his kids dispersed to their duties – Raphael and Emma picked up the chest between them and started lugging it towards the store room, while the others returned to their rounds. Apollo made a mental note to give them all some of his time before he left.
"If you ever need more medical supplies, you can always call me," he promised, putting a hand on Will's shoulder. His son felt even more exhausted than he looked. "Deliveries might be Hermes' domain, but healing is mine. I can help and if he wants to get shirty about it I'll remind him who's older."
The blossoming relief on Will's face made Apollo suspicious that maybe ambrosia and nectar weren't the only things lacking in the last delivery. He sighed. "What else are you short on?"
Will winced. "Everything?" It was phrased as a question. "I haven't got the inventory updated after yesterday yet, but I know we're running low on most things. I was going to do it this morning, but…" He tilted his head towards the unconscious new girl. "I'll get on that now."
"No, you won't," Nico interjected. "Raphael can do it. You need sleep."
"But-"
"I'll take a look at the stocks myself," Apollo decided. "When did you last sleep, Will?" He squeezed his shoulder lightly and got an impression of being up all night.
"I-"
"The night before last," Nico answered for him, and Will sent him a betrayed look.
Apollo sighed. "Bed. Now."
"But-"
"Nico, please make sure my son goes straight to bed. His shift is officially over." He didn't usually barge in and take over infirmaries (at least, not anymore, not if they were run by his children), but Will was one papercut away from passing out where he stood.
"You didn't need to tell me," the son of Hades retorted, tugging Will sideways into the shadow of a partially-drawn dividing curtain where they melted from view.
Apollo made a mental note to check up on Will before leaving, but first he had an infirmary to fully stock as much as it could handle (as much as he'd love the excuse to keep dropping in, Zeus would no doubt start getting twitchy, so it was safer to make sure they wouldn't need another top-up before Hermes' return), and several other, awake, children to make the most of the opportunity to see.
If I'd looked ahead on the prompt list, I'd have used today's prompt for the clothes shopping fic, but I didn't so I had to come up with something else instead. Not really shopping, but hey. That's what the 'but' is for.
Thanks for reading!
Tsari
