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"Is it really necessary we do this?" Apollo huffed, using a nearby tree to pull himself up.
"Absolutely!" Percy responded cheerfully. "I have been cramped inside for weeks, I seriously might just so crazy if I stay inside any longer."
"It was only a couple of days- hey, careful!" Apollo reached forward to grab him around the waist after he slipped on a wet rock.
"Thanks," Percy responded shortly, immediately running ahead of him after untangling from his grasp.
Apollo sighed, but followed along anyway. Perseus insisted they do this after being cooped up inside for three days, and while he understood why his boyfriend was being so twitchy, he was still anxious about letting him outside so soon.
But, well. It was hard to say no to him when he was freely running around with a smile on his lips. Plus, it shouldn't be too much of an issue, these were his lands, after all.
Surprisingly enough though, Poseidon hadn't gone on a murderous rage as he had expected. Sure, the first few days of Percy being on Delos had been a bit of a wreck of different hurricanes, things had now calmed down to an unhappy gloom.
At first, he had just assumed that Poseidon was waiting for him to show his face before he grabbed him by the ear and threw him all the way down to Tartarus, but that belief quickly dissipated. This weather felt... different .
(And so what if he directed them away from the ocean? It was just a safety precaution)
Khaos, when had he gotten so reckless with angering those who could easily squash him like a flea? Not even a century ago, he would've been mortified by his current actions.
He's always been one to fall too hard when it came to love.
It... is probably best he talk to Zeus as soon as he can. He doesn't exactly know how he'll explain all of... this. He'll figure it out, he always-
"Hey!" Percy called, snapping him out of his thoughts. Percy jogged towards, a carefree grin on his face. "Where'd you go?"
"Ah just... head in the clouds, I suppose." Apollo explained half-heartedly.
"Then help me out over here. What's this flower called?"
Apollo looked down at where he was pointing, recognizing the colourful plant almost immediately. "Oh! Wow, I can't believe you actually found one. This is an Opihize flower, they're very difficult to find due to the specific conditions they need to grow properly."
And they continued like that for a while, Percy pointing at various different plants and animals that are specific to Delos, and Apollo gives short summaries of them.
It was nice, peaceful, even.
That was, until the blue mist started rolling on the forest floor.
Apollo scowled at it. Of course he couldn't have a single, uninterrupted moment with his lover. As if the universe would ever allow something like that. "Get behind me." Apollo said lowly, taking out his bow and arrow.
Percy gave him a curious look, before noticing the fog and groaning. " Seriously?" He pulled out his sword anyway, raising it defensively.
With the mist, she could pop up anywhere .
At least, that's what they had assumed.
What they weren't expecting was the ground to begin to shake. Apollo had thought it was Percy at first, until he saw the alarmed look on his boyfriends face.
Before either could say a word, the ground underneath Percy split open, and he fell through the ground with a panicked scream.
—
The last thing Percy heard before the ground beneath him disappeared was Apollo yelling his name.
He screamed, desperately trying to cling onto something as he began to plummet through the earth.
(He tried not to think about how much the fall reminded him of Tartarus – he couldn't afford to, not here. Not now.)
He hit the ground with an oomph , immediately scrambling upwards and trying to see where Riptide landed.
The mist down here was thick though, he could barely see his own hands. Not only that, but the smell was absolutely foul, almost like a rotting corpse. It made him want to throw up right there.
A clawed hand appeared from the mist, grabbing his shoulders. Amara stared at him with her too-big eyes and her too-long limbs, personifying what he would imagine a dead person with a beating heart would look like.
"What are you?" He whispered, feeling the weight of Riptide back in his pocket. He almost grabbed for it, figured he'd stab her and run, but something about the way she looked at him made Percy hesitate.
"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Amara hissed, her voice cracking with energy.
She pushed him, hard enough for the wind to be knocked out of his lungs. Right before his head hit the ground, he reappeared back where he was before, in the middle of the forest on Delos.
Apollo rushed over to him as Percy shook on unsteady legs, reaching out to support him, but Percy pushed him away.
"Percy-" Apollo started, a strange look of relief, fear, and anger on his face.
" Don't- don't touch me." He stumbled back, trying to ignore how hurt the god looked at the statement.
"Seashell? Are you alright?" Apollo tried again, stepping forward.
Percy took three steps back, taking a deep breath as his arms shook. "I need to- I need to leave. "
"What do you mean leave?"
Percy knew that tone in Apollo's voice, he had grown to become very familiar with it. It was a distressed one, filled with anger and confusion and a tinge of hysteria.
And followed with it, usually came a desperate move on Apollo's part that would hurt them both.
Percy had said that Apollo tried to be the best he could, but, well... that didn't mean he was perfect.
So, Percy ran.
He ran past the dryads, and the shadow figures, and he kept running until the ocean was in view.
Percy dived deep into the water, and didn't look back.