WORLDS BEYOND ( pjo )

𝐢𝐱: were we always this broken

Hua Mitsuho had always taught her daughter to be proud of her name.

Of course, like any regular child would, Kia had wondered why she looked ever so slightly different from everyone in kindergarten, with her last name that no one seemed to be able to pronounce and her eyes that looked like they were pulled up. She'd never hated these features; she thought she was perpetually pretty, but it'd be a lie if she said she never thought about why.

One day, she'd brought up these concerns to her mother, to which the woman just smiled and ruffled her hair. Hua picked up a five year old Kia, sitting her on her lap and simply stared at her, Hua's eyes tracing all of Kia's facial features.

"You're very beautiful, Kia," she had said. "We are blessed to have been born with roots connected to such rich culture and history."

Kia always loved listening to her mother's voice. As she spoke in English, the slightest hints of a Japanese accent shone through. She enjoyed the quiet moments where her mother would speak in whispers, desperately trying to cling onto the ephemeral tranquility of the state they were in.

Hua would tell her about how they'd decided upon her given name. Her grandparents had chosen the name, as it was traditional Chinese culture. Her grandmother was purely Japanese, whereas her husband was half-Chinese; they wanted to have Kia's name be of Chinese origin to have that aspect of her roots to prevail whenever someone spoke her name and hence, they chose 'Kia,' the meaning literally implying she rose from Asia.

Another reason why they'd decided upon a Chinese name as opposed to Japanese was that her grandfather had ultimately taken her grandmother's last name, Mitsuho.

Her mother had taught her a few words in Japanese, one of the main focuses being Mitsuho. Kia knew it meant light, or at least the way she was taught.

How befitting that the first god she met was the god of the sun.

It was as if a switch had been turned off in Apollo once Percy was sent to sleep. She thought she saw a little bit of drool trickle down the side of his mouth, but ignored it in favour of facing the god.

Apollo was staring at her and she stared back. It was silent between the two, bar the soft breaths that came out of Percy's parted lips. Kia took the time to really look at the shades of blue Apollo's eyes were. It was a wonder that she hadn't noticed how blue they actually were. They looked like they contained all the stretches of the sky in the universe, just as dark and wise as you'd expect something as infinite as the sky to be.

"Kia."

The name tumbled out of his lips so heavily that it felt like it was pulling her down into the depths of the darkness of the reality of being a demigod. His voice was velvet smooth, dripping with the royal blood spilled in his past lover's names; this was a god and she was a mere mortal, there was no way she could ever measure up to all the things Apollo had seen in his endless life; and yet, here he was, looking at her like the world wouldn't exist without her. The fatherly tenderness he exhibited in his gaze was something so foreign yet welcomed for Kia, that she had to compose herself for a moment before replying.

"Apollo."

He seemed to be pleased, or at the very least, comforted by the fact that she hadn't used any formality of any kind. His stare didn't even twitch, though; it was as if his eyes reflected everything he wanted to tell her, even if she couldn't read any of it. "I see you've been doing well."

She had no idea what he was talking about, seeing as how there was nothing to go well at all, but she found herself nodding anyway, as if a mind she wasn't aware of had an inkling of what he was referring to.