One Shots

Rachel Dare and Apollo

Rachel stewed, alone as always, in her cave-like house that was rapidly beginning to feel like a tomb. She had tried in the beginning to come to terms with her life of isolation, creating beautiful paintings on a daily basis, but now the shackles of loneliness came for her as they do to every human and began to make her yearn for the touch of another human being. It wasn't like she couldn't touch other humans, just not engage in any sexual activity. She wasn't a virgin, having lost her virginity to a devilish musician at a camp for the arts one summer, and she began to miss that sort of touch.

"Maybe there is some sort of Ancient Greek cure for this sort of crap." She muttered, resolving to at least try to solve her problems she left her tomb in the search of the best problem solver she could think of.

"Hey Rachel." Annabeth murmured sleepily, dazing under a tree surrounded by books.

"There you are! I have something to ask you." Rachel flopped next to Annabeth on the grass and blew some strands of red hair out of her face.

"Shoot." Annabeth said.

"What do you know about this whole Oracle of Delphi thing? Is there a way to suspend it for a short period?" Rachel thought a few hours would be enough, Travis Stoll would do; he was always following her around with lust clear on his mind.

"The only way I know for an Oracle to give up her status is to pass it on to the next Oracle, but you would have to die. Apollo keeps the whole process shrouded from public knowledge." Annabeth turned to Rachel curiously but she knew better than to ask.

"So I'd have to ask Apollo directly?"

"And hope he doesn't smite you for wanting to give up your 'gift', yeah." Annabeth shrugged.

"Thanks A. I'll let you know how it goes." Rachel left an incredibly inquisitive Annabeth and went about collecting some supplies to summon a god.

*********

"Apollo, great god of art and prophecy I beseech the: appear before me and hear me!" Rachel called throwing salted pork and fruit into the hearth of her cave. She felt the air shift, knowing he was listening but not enough to appear. She picked up a scroll she had found in the library and began to read off a very old, very cheesy, poem about the epic conquests of Apollo. Still nothing.

"Gods dammit! Get down here you golden haired dick!" Rachel screamed, kicking over one of her easels. A tanned muscular hand caught the painting before it hit the ground and propped it back up.

"Now now, I really liked that painting." Apollo grinned, standing far to close for Rachel in her angered state.

"Then I'll make sure to burn it later. Why didn't you come earlier?" Rachel grumbled.

"It's not very often that I have someone read off my accomplishments, so sue me if I want to milk it a little. What's on your mind Red?" Apollo walked over and folded himself onto the couch gracefully.

"I want to ask you something." Now that the moment was here Annabeths earlier words resounded in her head, making her worry about upsetting the famously fickle god.

"Time trickles past us
Clearly Red is stunned by me
I am very hot" Apollo recites, waggling his eyebrows at Rachel.

"No, you bumbling idiot! I want to talk to you about being Oracle." Rachel flops down on the couch next to him, frustrated.

"You know, I like that about you. You aren't afraid that I'm going to turn you into a dolphin or anything. Not that I would anyway, Dionysus has that market cornered. Who knew you could patent an animal?" Apollo reached out and moved a strand of hair out of Rachel's face, knowing it was doing nothing to help tame her mane of hair.

"That explains how he has all that money for alcohol! He must get like a hundred drachma for every dolphin born." Rachel relaxed under Apollo's touch despite herself, laughing at his joke.

"You know it has to be killing him to not use it. I do look forward to the party he's going to throw when Zeus lifts his restriction. The last time I went to a party like that I lost a decade in a haze, the eighties was legendary." Apollo reminisced.

"That explains your penchant for wearing bell bottoms." Rachel tugged on his loose pant leg and laughed at the playful look on his face.

"Blasphemy! Bell bottoms are an art form all their own. So much better than this painted on nonsense you mortals are wearing now! Though I must admit that it does show off your butts fantastically." Apollo laughed as Rachel shoved his shoulder at the mention of butt appreciation.

"Is that what you do on your cloud all day? Write haiku and look at butts?" Rachel asked, a smile on her face. Apollo was struck anew by the beauty of his Oracle, even though he chose her for her fiery spirit; something that was only rivaled by her untameable hair.

"I look in on you a lot." Apollo couldn't resist touching her flawless skin, trailing his fingers along the side of her neck. She shivered but expanded towards him.

"So it's thanks to you that I always have inspiration to paint?" Rachel whispered, coming even closer. Apollo could feel her mortal warmth and her fast beating heart.

"What can I say? I like looking in on you."

"So you know already what I want to ask you?" Rachel flushed, looking up at his through her impossibly long eyelashes, looking so vulnerable that Apollo had to keep himself from embracing her.

"Not at all, I give you privacy." Apollo smiled as she flushed even deeper. Rachel closed her eyes and took a deep breath

"I want you to take away my Oracle status." She blurted, she felt Apollo jerk as if she had slapped him.

"Why?" Apollo whispered almost as if air had abandoned him with her confession.

"Because...." Rachel self consciously curled in on herself slightly.

"Come on Red, why do you hate being my Oracle? Have I mistreated you in some way? Tell me." Apollo coaxed, reaching out and rubbing soothing circles on her back.

"Being the Oracle is fine, I just don't like the strings attached." Rachel murmured, not looking Apollo in the eye.

"Like what? The green smoke? I always thought that it looked pretty bad ass."

"No! I'm okay with the smoke, even though it leaves a bad taste in my mouth; but that's not the point. I don't like how lonely it is, I see Percy and Annabeth, Piper and Jason, hell even someone like Clarisse found a guy but I can't have anyone. I don't like being physically isolated." Rachel confessed to her hands in her lap, trying without saying the words to get Apollo to understand.

"Is that all?"

"Yeah... I love being here at camp, I like the friends I've made, I like being in this world, and I even like the danger it presents."

"Rachel?" Apollo asked, saying Rachel's name for the first time since accepting her as his Oracle. Startled, she looked up and his face was as gentle as his voice had been. He cradled her face like he was looking at the most precious jewel he could ever have been gifted and leaned in to kiss her.

"Apollo?" Rachel interrupted him "What are you doing?"

"Being my Oracle is basically like being a nun in that Christian religion, when you became my Oracle you devoted yourself to only me; which is why you can't have sex with anyone. But by devoting yourself to me, you can be with me physically and not break your oath." Apollo gave Rachel a lopsided grin that made her bite her lip.

"I really should have read the fine print." Rachel smiled before climbing into Apollo's lap.

"No one ever does anymore." Apollo grinned as he leaned down and kissed Rachel, sparks literally flying around the sun god.

*********

In a post orgasm haze Rachel lay naked next to Apollo, their legs entwined with her sheets.

"They don't call you a god for nothing." Rachel nuzzled his collarbone.

"That wasn't nothing, I'm good for round four whenever you catch your breath." Apollo grabbed her waist and pulled her on top of him again.

"Maybe it's a good thing I didn't read the fine print."