Ashley & Apollo

Chapter 4 - Familiar but New

"How about this one?" Ashley held up a salmon pink card.

They'd been in the paint shop for ten minutes and she still hadn't found a color for her bedroom walls. The colorful cards were all displayed on shelves, making them easy to view, but she found the sheer number of them overwhelming. At first, she'd considered a light blue, but it would be too similar to her current lilac walls, and she wanted something different.

Demeter leaned over to inspect the paint swatch. "Mm, it's a bit bright. Are you looking for a vibrant color?"

Earlier, she and Demeter had taken a winding path to the closest market square, choosing to walk rather than fly directly there. Ashley had spent almost all of her time in the mortal world in a city, so she was surprised to discover she'd missed this one, but the atmosphere was very different. Olympus had wide roads to walk down, instead of cramped sidewalks. Older stone buildings, instead of modern ones, interspersed with trees and greenery. Above all, the streets had sounded more peaceful, lacking the backdrop of noise caused by vehicles rushing by.

Olympus had a steadier beauty than the vibrant bustle of the mortal world, Ashley had decided.

"Not really... I think I want a softer shade actually." Ashley put the swatch back and resumed her search.

"You could do multiple colors," Demeter suggested, sifting through another batch. "Or add a new design. The foxes turned out well, but personally I prefer flora when it's arranged nicely."

Staring at the shades of orange Ashley had moved on to, inspiration struck her. "Oh! What about a sunset?" That way, she could have a new color palette, and still include some blue.

"Sounds interesting."

Ashley's eyes caught a soft orange that could work, and she snatched it up, searching for a pale yellow to go with it. A light blue wouldn't fit in a sunset, but she could incorporate a medium shade instead, darkening to a navy over her ceiling. Maybe Katherine would help her add some clouds and stars for detail. Within a few minutes, she accumulated a palette of seven colors, evolving from an off white to a blue black, plus an additional bright white for the stars.

"I like it. You have a good eye for this stuff," Demeter said, as she looked over her selection at the counter. The cashier had already retrieved the cans, along with various paint brushes and protective plastic sheets. "But I hope you don't want to carry eight cans of paint with us through the grocery store. Because I know that's an ill-advised plan, and I'll still agree to it."

Ashley winced, imagining it. "No, we're going to teleport these to my apartment first. Unless you're offering to carry all eight." She gave the cashier some gold coins and thanked him, putting the change back in her pockets.

Demeter crossed her arms. "Well, I could certainly try. I must confess, I'm hurt that my own granddaughter has no faith in me."

"Uh huh," Ashley said, handing her two of the cans.

It took them two trips to move them to her apartment, but they had to teleport outside of it the first time, so Ashley could unlock the door. The lock prevented anyone but the owner from teleporting in, when engaged, and neither of them had a hand available to enter together. It was a little inconvenient, but like the human tendency to find a way to transport shopping bags in as few trips as possible, Demeter rejected Ashley's proposal to make three trips instead.

Neither of Ashley's friends seemed to have returned, so they were uninterrupted as they hauled the cans into the living room and lined them up against the wall. It was a matter of convenience—Ashley would bring them the rest of the way to her bedroom later. The main area of her apartment was open concept, as it had been before she moved in, so the mudroom led straight to the kitchen-slash-living-room area. Two short hallways connected it to three bedrooms and an additional bathroom.