Sunburn- phoebus apollo

--i. before everything

TIME QUICKLY MELTED AWAY.

The thing about Apollo was that he tended to be extra. Ever since that night on Christmas Eve, the god had been given her more and more attention, if that was possible. He showed up every night in her dreams like he had promised, and spoiled Rhea rotten with gifts that must've cost thousands of dollars.

What Rhea didn't expect was for him to visit her when she was at camp. The daughter of Poseidon had only stopped by home to spend Christmas with her family before Chiron insisted that she come back to camp to practice her powers.

His presence was startling, to say the least. Almost so startling that a random camper that she had been dueling with almost impaled himself in a haste to kneel down.

Everything about Apollo was different. The sun shined brighter, the world grew sharper. Everything was louder, and the colors turned crisp and vivid.

She turned.

Apollo was already smiling when he walked up to her, but it seemed to get... bigger when she finally acknowledged him, like he didn't have a large enough face for the smile he wanted to give.

"What are you doing here?" She asked in surprise, transforming Lunacy back into ring form before sliding it onto her finger. The girl then turned to gesture at the poor demigod who was still kneeling to stand up. He did and made a mad dash towards the exit.

"What, not happy to see me?" He retorted, raising an eyebrow at her.

"No uh...." Rhea sputtered. "It's just... aren't you out hunting monsters with Artemis? I would have thought you'd be busy."

"Never too busy for you." Apollo answered, making her smile shyly. He was wearing sunglasses--the same brand as the pair he'd given her, but a different color. Rhea couldn't see his eyes very well behind them, but she imagined she could see his gaze soften when she met his stare.

They had decided to talk a walk around camp, and they were chatting with each other about nothing in particular. Rhea had wanted to know about his hunting adventures, and Apollo was more than happy to comply. Somewhere in between, their fingers had woven together into a tight clasp, making tingles shoot up Rhea's hand.

Here's the thing... Apollo attracted profuse attention. Rhea's camp mates kept looking, sending them glances of shock and interest. She was very aware of the fact that the Aphrodite kids kept on sneaking glances their way, giggling and blushing. If Apollo noticed, he didn't react to them. In fact, he was still focused on the most recent adventure he had had with his sister and was enthusiastically telling her about it.

With the sun shining down on them, Apollo looked right in his element. Rhea couldn't find fault in their reactions. He didn't need to morph into a person's ideal type like Aphrodite did; he was magnetic all on his own, and people had always relied on the sun to live. The interest he often received was not surprising.

Rhea found her eyes drawn to the fluffy whisps of his golden hair, and she had to resist the urge to run her hand through it to feel how soft it was. And then she gazed down to his muscles and chest, which was so wonderfully built. he was so, so gorgeous; it became hard to think straight.

The girl's heart fluttered with nervous, one from being stared at and the other from his beauty.

But as she stared at the laugh lines around the way his cheekbones sharpened under the sunlight, she thought she wouldn't mind all of the eyes on him as long as his eyes were on her.

*****

The next time he showed up was on Valentine's Day. It was early in the morning and everyone was in the dining area eating breakfast. Rhea was sitting alone at the Poseidon table (since her brother wasn't at camp) and eating some eggs when all of a sudden a flash of light appeared in the center and was replaced with Apollo holding a bouquet of flowers so big that she could barely see his face.