Okay, that's enough. I say to myself. It's long beyond me. I let my legs give in too, and collapse.
My eyes snap instantly open, and I realize, that it was all in my head, and actually just a second. I remember back to what feels like a couple of decades ago and shake my head. I turn around slowly, probably not ready for the sight yet. I take a deep breath as I lay my eyes on the person in front of me.

"So, you want me to do what, now?" Dio snorted and sipped from his diet coke. "Organize a party that I'm not even attending? And for what, no payment?"

"Well, if you put it like that- "

"I'm just being realistic..."

"And an asshole!" Ares cut in, annoyed by how slow things go. He was lying on the sofa of the big house, his head resting in Aphrodite's lap. She was currently fixing her make up, looking intensely into the mirror Hermes had to hold for her. Dionysus slumped back into his leather armchair dramatically and sighed.

"You are asking me favors then insult me?!" He snapped then smirked to himself. "You've gotta pay me back for this."

"Just tell us what you want!" I almost screamed, this is useless, the time flies by and I'm on the edge of losing Percy.

"Why, brother" Dio sounded rather amused, but I was on the verge of another breakdown, so I couldn't relate. "Of course, the only thing I want is out of here. Back on Olympus. With wine. Lots of wine. And Ariadne."

"In this order?" Aphrodite asked, finally glancing away from her own reflection. Hah, pretty narcissistic, if you ask me.

"Mhm, yes." Dio waved his hand and opened up another can of coke.

"So, you want wine more than your WIFE??!" Dite almost screamed his head off, now turning into a real harpy. Honestly, anger doesn't look good on her.

"Baby, that's not impor-"

"YES, IT IS!" She was now screaming at her lover and examined him infuriated. "Would you choose war over me??!"

"Aghg, this gives me a headache." Hermes threw the mirror, and popped between the lovers, that were now standing in front of each other ready to fight. "So, before you go off and have some crazy angry sex, could we focus on poor Apollo? Look how miserable he is."

"Thanks" I gritted my teeth at his insult, but suddenly everyone was looking at me with pity in their eyes.

"Alright, alright I'll just settle for Olympus and Ariadne." Dio cut in, and we all looked at him nonplussed.

After that everything went moderately smoothly. Dionysus planned out the different stages littered all over Olympus, mostly about what style the music would be, while Aphrodite worked on the different locations' designs. Hermes was constantly on the phone, talking with restaurant and bar owners, to offer them to join in on the event, and become its official caterers, and if they weren't that keen, then he just simply gave the phone to Ares, who threatened them, and then they said yes without hesitation. I spoke with the muses, and also talked to Chiron, about inviting all the demigods, so that Percy being there wouldn't be suspicious. Of course, because of that, we had to arrange places, that were off-limits for demigods, so that everybody could enjoy themselves freely, and we decided on some rules on the other locations, where the kids were allowed. Like restrictions about how much alcohol (and no drugs) could be consumed or bought; or banning any sexual activity. After a few hours all the pieces of our plans came together, and we were quite delighted with the results.

Then, we teleported to Olympus, and with help from smaller deities, we started setting everything up. Thanks to Hermes, who has already talked to Zeus, about letting Dionysus on Olympus, for the party, Dio was in tears of joy, as he reconnected with Ariadne and she and his maenads helped a lot with arranging everything. We had no idea, how he managed to convince our Father that quickly, but we shrugged it away, as he wouldn't tell us anything more than 'I know one of his secrets.'

Halfway through the hard work, Aphrodite came to me, and pulled me into a smaller alley between two bigger temples.

"Now, don't worry about everything!" She started, then looked me up and down closely, with a frown. "We got it! But now you need to focus on getting Percy here!"

Then she snapped her fingers, and my clothes were changed. I was now glistening in a deep blue shirt, which had the top three buttons undone, therefore my beautiful, muscular, hairless chest was revealed. Accompanied by a really tight, black jeans, that was ripped at the end, and on some places, like my thighs too. I also had some basic black Converse on.

"I could change my clothes myself; you know..." I started but as I turned around, I saw that the jeans perfectly complimented my butt. And as she held a mirror to my face, I could see that she fixed my hair too, as well as the circles under my puffed-up eyes. Now, I looked just like at my best. The shirt even made my sparkling sky-blue eyes pop. "But never mind, thanks!"

Dite just laughed and waved a hand. "Please, just don't mess this one up! You two are cute!"

And with that she left me there, frowning at what she implied. All my lovers die.

I shook my head, to get that creepy voice out. This was not gonna happen. Besides, he's not even my lover yet.

I appeared in front of the door of their apartment, and Sally opened the door for me. She radiated sadness, but her eyes lit up as she saw that it's me.

"Oh, I almost thought, you were never going to show up." She said sighing with relief. "I'm glad you made it. He's in his room. Crying."

Something flashed in her eyes, but she softened her posture immediately, and invited me in.

"I'm sorry it took me so long. But this party I was talking about yesterday, well it was a big obstacle, but now I took care of everything." I explained, since she knew about my previous plans, but not about this party I mentioned in my weak moment the other day. "With some help."

"But that means you're still taking him out somewhere, right? Or stay with him?" She asked worrying slightly, as she was picking out the biggest blue cookies from the oven, to a plate. "We already celebrated his birthday together, but I think he misses you a lot. In fact, he straight up thinks you forgot about it or don't care, and he's sad that you weren't with us, when we ate from the cake. It's not like he expected you to give him something, but he just wanted to spend the day with you, and..."

"Yes, I'm so sorry about that. It's just that this inconvenience came up, and I couldn't join you earlier." I apologized, feeling some kind of familiar stirring in my stomach. That's guilt. I realized as I remembered back to my days as Lester. So, I'm still myself. I sighed with relief, but hushed these thoughts away, because not everything is about me anymore. And this day is absolutely about my favourite demigod ever. So I accepted the plate of the most beautiful huge cookies, and made my way in the direction of Percy's bedroom. Walking past the master bedroom, I saw Paul rocking Estelle in his arms, and waved to him. He nodded back, smiling, but then focused on lulling his daughter to sleep again.

I reached the door, that has been beautifully painted by Rachel, my sacred oracle, and dear friend. It was oceanic themed, with different kinds of fish and other creatures, that I had no idea what their name was, swimming around seaweed and corals and other plants, that I also couldn't name. I instantly smiled, this door itself had this natural effect on me. But my grin faded, as heard stiffled sobs from inside.

I knocked, and the crying stopped immediately.

"I told you mom; I was fine." I heard a mumble, but no movement so I just knocked again.

This time I heard steps approaching and with my godly hearing, I heard Percy's quiet sniffs, as he probably wiped his tears away. I also heard him take a deep breath and I could almost see in front of my eyes, how he gathered himself to smile, when he'd open the door.

And just as I imagined, when finally the door revealed him, he was smiling, but it was obvious, that he's been crying before. 

YAAAY, I'm back!So the thing is I had a really hard time writing this chapter. I never had any motivation, or inspiration, and while the end is far, I have no idea how or when we'll get there.Besides in November and December, I was focusing on my other Apollo/Percy fanfic: Sunflower, and I managed to write a long-ass smutty chapter, that basically drained me. (no wonder: it was 9000+ words, while usually I write around 900-1200)SO, I apologize for this shitty chapter. I'll work harder on the next part, since that's going to be important.

Word count:1441

So I wanted to include some pics of Apollo and Percy:

And I imagined Apollo's true/godly form as in Blood of Zeus:

ALL CREDIT GOES TO ARTISTS!!!!!!!! SORRY I'M NOT CREDITING THEM RIGHT NOW, BUT THEY ARE SOO BEAUTIFUL I HAD TO INCLUDE THESE. IF THIS BOTHERS SOMEONE OR THE ARTISTS, THEN I'M REALLY, REALLY SORRY ABOUT THAT AND I'LL TAKE THEM DOWN!!!!!!!

(I'm gonna probably make a chapter about these pics only, so I'll list every artist there.)

Anyways love

Lianna