Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus. There is some dialogue in this chapter taken from 'The Titan's Curse', but this text has been italicized, and I do not claim to own any of this text. It all belongs to the beautiful mind of Rick Riordan. Additionally, I don't own the song that inspired the story title, 'Kidz', by Take That, or the song that inspired the chapter title, 'Ordinary Day' by Vanessa Carlton. Yes, my taste in music is in fact quite eclectic.
Story Title: Uphill and Against the Wind
Summary: A series of encounters over the years leave Percy Jackson desperately in love with Apollo, the Sun God, but when Hera switches her with Jason Grace, Percy is left in New Rome with only the vague memory of a boy that almost seems to glow gold. Fem!Percy
Rated: M, for language, and later in the story, lemons
AN: I would like to use this space to answer the questions of two of my guest reviewers: favfan and sleepymermaid. Apollo and Percy do not meet until 'The Titan's Curse', as I'm basing this off of the books. This chapter actually focuses on the events of 'The Titan's Curse', because I'm kind of skimming over the events of the first five books to establish contact and feelings between the pair, and then I'll go over the events of Percy's 'perfect summer' in a much slower, more developmental way to better show their relationship, which is necessary as that is when they start 'going out' (though it feels weird to use that term when there's an Olympian God in the equation…) And then 'Son of Neptune' and 'Mark of Athena' will be a little more like re-writes… so basically it looks like this story is going to be a little long…
Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed and favorited chapter 1, I was seriously blown away by the response! I wasn't even sure people would be interested in reading it in the first place!
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II: What I Had Not Felt Before
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And as he spoke,
He spoke ordinary words,
Though they did not feel, no,
For I felt what I had not felt before,
And you'd swear those words could heal
-Ordinary Day, by Vanessa Carlton
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Apollo was right. The appearance of Persephone Jackson was a vivid one. She was like a meteorite in a starless sky, her trail across Apollo's consciousness swift, but lasting, with sparkles of intense color otherwise known as interest left in her wake. He was very rarely bored when Percy Jackson was in action.
The only problem was, as a summer camper, in the grand spectrum of things, she was rarely in action.
The next time that Poseidon's fourteen-year-old daughter caught the Sun God's attention was the following summer, when she managed to complete a near impossible feat and bring the Golden Fleece to Camp Half-Blood, which then had the knock-on effect of reviving Zeus' beloved daughter, Thalia Grace. And that was the day that she earned the respect of Zeus, though the King of the Gods would never admit feelings of such reverence towards a demigod if his life depended on it, much less Poseidon's demigod.
The six months afterward were a repetitive haze of boredom, a cloud through which Apollo stumbled mechanically, because the golden glitter of excitement that Percy left behind seemed to make the rest of the world unbearably dim.
But then she shot across the sky of the Gods for a third time in the winter of 2007, and this time, she not only caught Apollo's attention, but she held it.
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The girl standing before Percy looked about her age, maybe twelve or thirteen, with dark red hair that reminded her of royalty, a deep, beautiful auburn. Despite her slight frame, something in Percy warned that this girl could potentially be very dangerous, though she did not feel threatened at the moment. It was her eyes that really caught Percy's attention though, a frigid silver, sharp as the wolves that seemed to follow her lead, yet tranquil, like staring into a sea of liquid moonlight.
Yet for all of her startling, unearthly beauty, cold and ethereal as it was, Percy could not see her as anything but an obstruction.
As Percy struggled, the girl spoke, her voice as quiet and mysterious as the dark side of the moon. "You are in no condition to be hurling yourself off of cliffs."
But that only made Percy struggle harder. Didn't she understand? Percy had to save Annabeth! Her best friend had just fallen off a freaking cliff!
"Let me go! Who do you think you are?"
The other girl, the one who was equally beautiful, yet much, much darker, stepped forward as though to slap Percy, but she was stopped by the girl with moonlit eyes.
"No, Zoë, she means no disrespect. She simply does not understand."
Those sharp eyes cut over to Percy.
"I am Artemis. Goddess of the Hunt."
Well that was unexpected. Like, seriously? She was a tiny little waif of a Goddess. And yet… well, okay, so now that Percy thought about it, she was literally too beautiful to be human, and, okay, that sense of danger? Yeah, that was her instincts telling her she could potentially be vaporized, and yeah, now that she was more focused, every single one of her instincts were telling her to bow.
"Oh… okay," she said, as realization washed over her and she wallowed in a mild sense of embarrassment.
Grover got on his knees and pretty much started worshipping Artemis right then and there, while Bianca di Angelo really started to flip out when Zoë Nightshade, the darker girl, told her that one of her and Nico's parents was an Olympian God.
Nico started hopping around like he'd had ten cups of coffee and Bianca insisted the Gods weren't real, and as much as Percy wanted to go after her best friend, she felt a moment of pity for the di Angelos. Finding out you're a demigod is hard, and actually being one is even harder.
"Bianca," Thalia started in the gentlest voice Percy had ever heard the other girl use, "I know it's hard to believe. But the Gods are still around. Trust me. They're immortal. And whenever they have kids with regular humans, kids like us, well… Our lives are dangerous."
And wasn't that just the understatement of the century, Percy thought, staring mournfully over at the cliff edge where Annabeth had fallen in a tumble of orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, and pretty blonde ringlets.
Bianca was apparently thinking along the same lines. "Dangerous," she said, "Like the girl who fell."
Percy flinched at that. She could help dark 'what if' thoughts crossing her mind as Artemis explained that by some strange magic, Annabeth was gone, and could not, at that point, be followed. But what if the fall had been too much? What if Dr. Thorn had gotten to her? What if Annabeth was dead? What if Percy never saw her best friend again?
"Bianca," Percy said, "we came here to help you. You and Nico need training to survive. Dr. Thorn won't be the last monster you meet. You need to come to camp."
"Camp?"
"Camp Half-Blood. It's where half-bloods learn to survive and stuff. You can join us, stay there year-round if you like."
"There is another option," Zoë spoke suddenly, surprising Percy. Another option? What other option?
"No," Thalia growled menacingly, only fueling Percy's curiosity, "there isn't."
Percy could immediately tell there was a bad history between Thalia and Zoë, if the way they were staring each other down was any indication.
"I believe we've burdened these children enough," Artemis interjected. "Raise the tents, Zoë, and Bianca, I would like to speak with you."
"Can I come?" Nico asked excitedly, but there was something off in the way Artemis eyed him. Not hostile, or cruel exactly, but rather more cold and unfriendly than was warranted.
"Perhaps you can show Grover how to play that card game you enjoy. I'm sure Grover would be happy to entertain you for awhile… as a favor to me?"
Grover seemed to regard Artemis with a strange sort of awe that he did not bestow upon even Mr. D, so his 'you bet' was just a little too enthusiastic.
Bianca and Artemis started to turn away, but then the Goddess paused, and turned back to give Percy a contemplative look.
"You, maiden," she began, startling Percy who never in a million years guessed she'd be referred to as such, "You should know that you too have options. Come, Percy, walk with Bianca and I."
She stared in surprise at them for a moment, before hurriedly jogging after them to catch up. Artemis walked with them along the cliff's edge, and Percy couldn't help continuously looking down at the bottom, compulsively checking that Annabeth's body hadn't been smashed against the sea rocks down below, though something told her that as the daughter of the Sea God, if that were the case, then she'd know.
"Are you surprised by my age?" Artemis asked the two of them. Percy and Bianca exchanged nervous glances, not entirely sure what they should say, but then Percy just came right out with it.
"Uh… a little," to which Bianca nodded vigorously in agreement, her dark, sleek hair bouncing around her olive-toned face and gleaming in the dim light of the moon.
"I could appear as a grown woman, or a blazing fire, or anything else I want, but this is what I prefer. This is the average age of my Hunters, and all young maidens for whom I am patron, before they go astray."
Another uncertain, curious glance was exchanged between Percy and Bianca.
"Go astray?" Percy asked.
"Grow up. Become smitten with boys. Become silly, preoccupied, insecure. Forget themselves."
"Oh," Percy said as they entered one of the newly constructed tents, wondering how all of that counted as 'going astray'. Her mother had told her that falling in love was one of the best feelings in the world. It seemed a shame to miss out on it.
Inside the tent, it was blessedly warm, as opposed to the icy touch of the winter air outside. It was also strangely extravagant, with comfortable looking silk rugs and pillows strewn about. In the center, a fire burned happily, seemingly fueled by nothing and producing no smoke. As the three females sat in a triangular shape with Artemis and Bianca next to each other, leaving Percy at the upper-most point, she noticed a beautiful, intricate silver bow carved to look like gazelle horns behind the Goddess. Animal pelts adorned the walls, like an exotic, macabre wallpaper, black bear, tiger, leopard, and several others that Percy was unable to identify. She watched as a real live deer, a beautiful deer with glistening fur and gleaming, silver horns rested its head contently in Artemis' lap.
The Goddess studied Percy and Bianca in turn, though she seemed more focused on Percy. It made her uncomfortable, for the Goddess' eyes made way for an old soul. Options, Artemis had been talking about options. Percy now wondered if maybe the reason she was being studied more intensely than Bianca was because the Goddess was less sure about Percy's decision in the face of these options.
Zoë entered the tent, and Percy resisted the urge to sit up straight. Zoë's beauty was classic, looking as though her features had been perfected over a long period of carefully selected breeding, until with her upturned nose, full lips and hauntingly dark eyes, she looked so much like royalty with that shining silver circlet atop her dark, glossy hair that Percy had to resist the urge to follow her every command.
Zoë sat down gracefully next to Percy. She made Percy feel as though, in comparison, she was an ugly, clumsy lump of a troll.
Obviously someone needed to tell Artemis that girls did not always need boys to feel insecure.
They had a brief discussion about Dr. Thorn, and how he had spontaneously turned into a manticore, and Percy began to feel uneasy when it became obvious that Artemis was disturbed by the news. If it was enough to unsettle an Olympian Goddess, then it had to be pretty bad, right?
Once Artemis had finished extracting the information, she looked at Percy and Bianca with far sharper a gaze than Percy had realized was possible.
"And now there is one last decision to make," she said, and Percy felt the weight of uneasiness settle on her chest.
"I would like to invite you two maidens to join the Hunt."
Percy blinked, surprised. "The… the Hunt?"
Next to her, Zoë nodded. "Yes, if you join the Hunt, you may stay with Lady Artemis for an eternity. We kill monsters, as you do, though we have more freedom than you have at Camp Half-Blood, and you do not have to worry about pesky boys bothering you." As Zoë said the last part, she wrinkled her nose, as though the very idea of boys disgusted her.
"Eternity?" Bianca asked, her interest piqued.
Artemis nodded. "Yes, my Hunters are afforded immortality, so that they may stay with me forever. Of course, they may still pass in battle, and I grieve when they do. They will also lose their immortality if they break their oath to foreswear romantic love forever, but often the lifespan of my maidens is much extended. Zoë has been with me since the times of Ancient Greece."
Percy looked at the girl next to her in surprise. Immortal. Forever young. It didn't sound terrible at all. It certainly explained Zoë's strange accent.
And yet, Percy knew immediately that it was not an option. Camp Half-Blood was like home to her, the safest place she knew for demigods. And an eternity without boys… while she did not mind the thought so much at the moment, she had a feeling that given some time, she'd change her mind. She remembered her mother's words, about how loving another person truly and deeply could shift your whole perspective of the world.
Percy didn't want to miss out on that.
"We can't," Percy said, looking Bianca in the eye. "You have to come to Camp Half-Blood so Chiron can train you. It's the only way you can learn to survive."
"It is not the only way for a girl," Zoë said.
Percy felt indignation well up in her. It wasn't the fault of boys that they were boys. And she did not think that it was fair to ask Bianca to make this decision when she had no idea what Camp Half-Blood was like. She didn't know what she'd be giving up.
"Bianca, camp is cool! It's got a Pegasus stable and a sword-fighting arena and… please just at least give it a chance?"
Bianca wasn't looking all that swayed, though Zoë was now glaring at Percy, as though it were a crime that she was trying to stop Bianca from making a life-altering decision in the space of a few minutes.
Artemis sighed as she looked upon Percy, and turned her full attention to Bianca, as though to say 'well you're a hopeless case. Let's see what this one decides.'
"Bianca, this is crazy. What about your brother? Nico can't be a Hunter."
"Certainly not," Artemis said, as though the very idea offended her. "He will go to camp. Unfortunately that is the best boys can do."
Percy found herself extremely offended at the implication that Camp Half-Blood was anything less than the best place on Earth.
"You can see him from time to time," Artemis said to Bianca, who had begun to look uneasy. "But you will be free of responsibility. He will have the camp counselors to take care of him. And you will have a new family. Us."
"A new family. Free of responsibility," Bianca said, as though the answer to every single one of her dreams was being laid out at her feet.
"Bianca, you can't do this. It's nuts."
Bianca looked at Zoë. "Is it worth it?"
"Yes."
"What do I have to do?"
"Say this: I pledge myself to the Goddess Artemis."
"I- I pledge myself to the Goddess Artemis."
Percy watched as Bianca signed her life away in utter disbelief. She'd only known she was a demigod for, what, a half-hour? She'd never even been to Camp Half-Blood, and twenty-four hours ago, to Bianca, the idea of the Gods existing seemed ludicrous, and now she had agreed to a life of immortality with the Goddess of the Hunt?
"Dawn is coming," Artemis said. "Let us break camp. You must make a safe journey to Long Island," she said, looking at Percy. "I shall summon a ride from my brother."
Zoë looked highly displeased by this idea, but she nodded as she and Bianca the Hunter left the tent.
"So," Percy said, sulky upset lacing her tone, "We're going to get a ride from your brother, huh?"
Artemis' eyes flashed, the silver in them brighter than ever. "Yes… You see, Bianca di Angelo is not the only one with an annoying brother. It's time for you to meet my irresponsible twin, Apollo."
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It's time for you to meet my irresponsible twin, Apollo.
Percy had no idea how important this event would be.
Your destiny, child, lies in the morning in the East, and in the evening, in the West
No idea at all.
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Slowly, the sky began to lighten, changing from a deep, dark midnight blue into mysterious indigo, then a royal purple, and slowly into pinks, oranges and yellows.
Artemis muttered "About time. He's so-o-o lazy during the winter."
"You're, um, waiting for sunrise?" Percy asked.
"For my brother. Yes."
Logically, Percy realized that if all of the other Gods were real, then of course Apollo, the Sun God, was going to be pulling his chariot across the sky all the live-long day, and yes, there was an Apollo cabin at camp, so of course he existed, cause, you know, his kids were there and everything. But those science lessons were stuck in Percy's mind, and all she could see the sun as was a big fiery star thousands of miles away.
Of course, that was before he got there in a sudden burst of warm light, parking his red convertible Maserati Spyder. It was so awesome, it glowed. Then Percy's brain kicked in and said that it was glowing because the metal was hot. Because he was the freaking Sun God. A perfect circle of green grass surrounded the Maserati where the heat had melted the layer of frozen snowflakes.
"Wow," Thalia said as the driver, who Percy still had a hard time wrapping her mind around the fact was the God of the Sun, got out of the car. "Apollo is hot."
Percy almost wanted to come back with a smart-aleck remark, like, 'he's the Sun God," but then she really looked at him.
She was surprised by how young he looked, about seventeen or eighteen, but that wasn't really what was holding her attention. He was smiling, big and playful, his teeth perfect and white, and the smile was so genuine that without even meaning to, Percy began to smile back. He was tall, with the perfect, chiseled looks of a marble statue, but his appearance was much warmer than such a description would suggest, with soft-looking golden-blond hair, streaked with sun-bleached highlights. She found herself wanting to touch it. His eyes sparkled, the exact color of the sky on a cloudless day, and his skin was sun-kissed, a golden tan that almost seemed to glow. He wore jeans and a sleeveless T-shirt, but such mundane attire could not possibly hide that he was something altogether other.
He, like his sister, was far too beautiful to be human. Unlike his sister though, his beauty lay in bright, golden tones of warmth that Percy wanted to wrap herself up in and snuggle into, rather than Artemis' cold, imposing beauty.
"Yeah…" she found herself breathing in response to Thalia's comment.
Apollo was hot.
She was suddenly very, very, very glad that she had not joined the Hunters.
Percy barely registered the minor squabble that Apollo and Artemis were having about whether or not she was, in fact, his little sister, she was still too busy trying to recover her brain from the stupor that he had put it in. There was something that was niggling in the back of her mind, but she couldn't quite figure out what it was.
"I need a favor," Artemis said to her brother, sounding very irritated. "I have some hunting to do, alone. I need you to take my companions to Camp Half-Blood."
"Sure, sis!" He raised his hands, palms outward, and Percy blinked, a little confused. "I feel a haiku coming on."
Um… what?
The Hunters groaned. Apparently they knew what was coming.
"Green grass breaks through snow,
Artemis pleads for my help,
I am so cool."
Percy bit her lip, trying to hold back the amused smile in the face of everyone else's exasperation.
"That last line was only four syllables." Artemis pointed out.
"Was it?" Apollo asked, beginning to pout, and Percy couldn't help the smile now, muffling her laugh into her hand.
"Yes. What about, 'I am so big-headed'?" She laughed out loud at that, and then laughed even harder when Apollo, not quite getting it, muttered that that was six syllables.
"I've got it!" He burst out after some mumbling to himself. "I am so awesome. That's five syllables!"
Artemis rolled her eyes, and then pointed to Percy, Thalia and Nico. "These demigods will also need a ride. Some of Chiron's campers."
"No problem!" Apollo agreed happily. Percy smiled, wondering if he was ever upset. He started to look them over, and Percy tried hard not to blush. "Let's see… Thalia right? I've heard all about you."
Thalia blushed to the roots of her dark spiky hair. "Hi, Lord Apollo."
"Zeus' girl, yes? Makes you my half-sister." Somehow Percy doubted that that was what Thalia had wanted him to say to her. "Used to be a tree, didn't you?" And she doubted even more that Thalia wanted to be reminded of that. "Glad you're back." Thalia seemed to brighten a little at that. "I hate it when pretty girls get turned into trees. Man, I remember this one time-"
"Brother," Artemis interrupted, "you should get going."
"Oh, right." Then he looked at Percy, and his eyes… they sparked with some foreign interest that made Percy's breath catch in her throat. That thing in the back of her mind, it was some sort of valuable knowledge, a dim, neglected memory that struggled harder to come to the forefront of her consciousness, but for the life of her, she just could not quite remember-
"Percy Jackson?" he asked, and she felt her stomach coil pleasantly in response to the fact that he knew her name.
"Yeah. I mean… yes, sir." she said, flustered.
He continued to study her, as though analyzing her, and she suddenly wondered what he saw. A skinny, insecure girl of fourteen? A strong demigod who could hold her own? Or maybe he just looked at her and saw the daughter of Poseidon, nothing more, nothing less. For some reason, she hoped that he considered what he saw to be worth his time. She hoped he thought she was worth his time. There was a strange feeling stirring in her, almost like… butterflies?
"Well!" He finally said, looking away from Percy and making her feel simultaneously disappointed and relieved. "We'd better load up, huh? Ride only goes one way- West. And if you miss it, you miss it."
Ride only goes one way- West.
It clicked in her mind, that vague memory finally made it's appearance as vividly as though a penny had dropped, or a light bulb had turned on in her brain. It was like she was twelve years old again, standing in front of the Oracle for the very first time.
What is my destiny? She'd asked.
Your destiny, child, lies in the morning in the East, and in the evening, in the West had been the response.
Her destiny was the sun, she'd realized in confusion, because how could her destiny possibly be the sun?
Except, looking at Apollo, the God of the Sun, she got the feeling that maybe she understood what the Oracle meant now.
She didn't know when, she didn't know how, and she didn't know in what way, but someday, Apollo was going to be important.
He was her destiny.
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AN 2: So there are more Apollo/Percy scenes in 'The Titan's Curse', but I didn't want this chapter to be disproportionately long in comparison to Chapter 1, which is kind of the model for how long chapters are going to be, so 'The Titan's Curse' will be split across two chapters.
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and remember to review!