Maratona

Chapter One

 To Calliope, the muse of  epic poetry.
I have to say, I'm a huge fan of her work.                   

                              Hermes
One always had countless reasons to worry. So, he had chosen not to worry at all, instead.
It would have been a very good time to panic when he saw him standing there, though.
Apollo looked like he had just had a heart attack and Zeus himself decided to help by striking him with lightning.
That would have been a very plausible, Zeus-like thing to do, after all.
He was fidgeting with his hands hopelessly, and he bit his lip so hard Hermes figured it would soon bleed.
For the sake of Apollo's lips, he approached.

"Hey sunshine," he said,  "you feeling alright? Because you definitely don't look alright,"

Apollo looked down, avoiding eye contact, clearly reluctant to be having a conversation. Too damn bad Hermes was already set on saving his lips from further stress-induced self-harm.
"Hi Hermes," he said nervously.

"Yeah, something's definitely up," he figured. "You got a prophecy or something, love?"

Apollo sighed helplessly. "Guilty,"

"So? You're gonna leave me hanging? Tell me about it!" He happily sat down, forcing Phoebus to do the same.

"I had a vision," Apollo said, refusing to meet his gaze. It probably was very bad.
Besides, the god of the Oracle absolutely despised visions.
He said at least prophecies gave fancy poems about one's doom, but visions only allowed quick glances at it.
A prophecy lets one have a pretty sonnet to think about while heading to their downfall.
But visions were just... Vague.
And that vision was most definitely bad.

"Well," he replied, widely smiling at him, "I'm all ears, sunshine,"

"So," Apollo said slowly, "A kid'll show up in a couple days. He'll stay in Olympus in his childhood and... Well, I have a really bad feeling about his fate,"

"Ok," he paused for a moment, "is that it?"

The born from light didn't answer.
He was totally holding back some info on the vision in question. What a moron.

"Well that's charming," he said, barely hiding his plain disinterest.
"Is the really-bad-feeling-about-his-fate going to kill us all, by any chance?"

Apollo looked at him sheepishly.
"No, not likely,"

"Is it really that important, then? You may be overreacting a little, love," he said, purposely annoyingly.
He was about to crack Phoebus' bullshit. No one lies to the god of lies. Especially not the god of truth.

"I am not overreacting," Apollo replied sharply, but not as angrily as he should have had. He was... Upset about it?

"Fine then. You said he was a boy, this kid?" He asked expectantly.

"I didn't," the sun god replied. "The vision didn't show me the gender of the child,"

"I personally hope it's a girl," he smirked. "We got enough men around here already. We're missing some femmine touch here,"

Apollo chuckled half-heartedly. "You sound just like Artemis,"

"Really?" He asked. "I was aiming for a more Aphrodite-like impression,"

They both laughed together. He almost had him. Almost.

"And we don't know who the father is, right?" He asked.
Apollo rapidly wiped the smile out of his face, leaving an apologetic expression on his face. Got him.
"I mean, it's probably Zeus'. Would be surprised if it wasn't, honestly," he jerked, as Phoebus went back to biting his lip.