Who's your daddy? (Milo)

[Apollo]

Apollo was distraught.

Not only was there no one there to see his fabulous entrance, his glorious return to Tintagel, but his new playground looked terrible. And when he tried to just wave his hand and clear it up…it was hard…it was so slow…he remembered vaguely that before the portal sucked him back to Olympus that his powers had been dampened, perhaps it was a carryover from that.

He sighed dramatically as he slowly cut his way through the corridors, which is when the brushing away of one vine in particular caught his attention…the library…yes…

The library used to be one of his favourite places, not for the reading, no, but for all the lovely young men that would come here to read…oh…how it must be in disrepair now…but wait…

A wonderful idea came to him as he pulled open the door.

What if he was the one to restore this beautiful library to its former glory? How grateful would all those handsome young men be? They would worship the ground he walked on and he could have his pick of them. Oh this was the best idea…oh and of course he was the God of the arts after all and writing was an art so he really ought to put some effort into that.

He sighed, if only he could have brought his muses with him, oh how he loved his little gossips.

Throwing his weight against it he eventually managed to budge open the door. “Right,” he said to himself rubbing his hands together as he looked at the overgrown room, “let’s get to work.”

[Milo Thatch]

Milo was not giving up on this professorship thing. He couldn't, he just couldn't. Not after everything he'd left behind. The school might be totally overgrown, there might only be about seventeen people around, but he had to believe they could bring it back, they could get it back up and running. If they couldn't...what was he supposed to do? Go back home? Tell everyone "well, I was right, I found a way to get back to the magical place I've been raving about for the past decade, but it turns out it's been a hundred years there and they weren't hiring"? That just...nope, that wasn't happening. There was supposed to be a meeting or something, and he was going to attend that, but until that time, he figured he would go and ascertain the state of things. Important things, like classrooms and especially the library.

Walking around the school in this condition wasn't as strange for Milo as it might have been for someone who hadn't been dragged to various archaeological digs since he was a child. Milo had seen plenty of lost civilizations, he just had the benefit of having seen this one back when it was alive and thriving. He had his grandfather's eye for seeing things as they had been, for imagining the living memory of a place even after the inhabitants were long gone, and this place he didn't even need to extrapolate the memories, they were his to begin with. He had a makeshift machete he had fashioned out of his large knife and a stick he had fastened it to, and he made his way through the undergrowth up to the library, hacking away at the plants as he went.

As he got closer to the library, though, he realised that somebody had already been walking here. Milo frowned worriedly. He hoped it was someone who meant well, like himself, and not someone who was trying to loot the library. If the library had been untouched thus far, there were priceless manuscripts in there. Milo decided that if he needed to, he could probably at least try to defend books with his homemade machete, but he hoped he wouldn't have to. Physical confrontation had never been his forte.

He stepped in through the open door, peering into the main chamber. "Hello?" he called. "Anybody in here?"

[Apollo]

It appeared that the majority of the books contained in the library were untouched by the vines which was certainly welcome, that meant he did not have to do a whole lot of book restoration which was easy enough just time consuming and a real pain. However the vines that had grown over the top of the shelves were obstructing any access to the books, and well, how was he supposed to make those lovely young men happy if they could not get to their books.

He had started pulling at the vines and when that had proved to be a little boring he had started using his powers again. They were still dampened by whatever magical field this place had, but he could emit sunlight from his hands for long enough to start moving the vines, as their leaves were drawn to the light. As he worked he started to sing one of his favourites, ‘I follow the sun’…

…which is when he heard a voice…

…a vaguely familiar voice…

…no…could it be…was it he…

He dropped the piles of books he had just been looking for and rushed around the side of the bookshelves, hoping to catch a glimpse of his…

…he stared at the man…a slight frown creasing his forehead…quietly…he said,”…apple?”

[Milo Thatch]

Milo had spent the last ten years in relative solitude. He hadn't bothered taking anyone out, because who had time for dating when they had to hunt down a magical portal and hold down a full time job at the same time? And also, once you'd been pursued by a dryad and the actual god of the sun, ordinary dating seemed a little boring in comparison.

Just the same, all that had happened when Milo was still a teenager. He remembered it all, but in the sort of way you remember summer vacations of your childhood. Fondly, with the sweetest sense of nostalgia and the bittersweet wish that you could go back to a simpler time.

Which was why, when he heard Apollo's voice, singing at first, he honestly thought it was part of the memory he was pulling up as he walked through the school. But then Apollo himself came around the corner, in a rush of falling books and movement, and Milo found himself absolutely speechless. No one else had ever called him that...not the way Apollo had, like he was something precious and prize-worthy.

"My gosh..." he finally managed, eyes locked onto Apollo's. "Apollo." What were you supposed to say to a god who had been pursuing you romantically the last time you saw him, when you knew he had a fondness for attractive young men and you were ten years older than the last time he'd seen you?

"You look...radiant," he said, his makeshift machete falling to his side.

[Apollo]

It was him. It…it was him.

After all these years apart, he was finally back, and he was here, standing in front of him, that same awed expression and oh ‘Gosh’ he still said ’Gosh’. It was his Apple, his little Apple, was back and he was in the library and of course he was because this was exactly the sort of place that his smart little history aficionado would come. Was that not the whole reason that Apollo had come here in the first place, to make this place pretty for such a person?

And OH! He Remembered him, he knew, he instinctively knew it was Apollo. He may have changed his face, but his little Apple knew and…radiant…he thought he was…radiant…

Well…was…was that no just the perfect word choice for a Sun God?

His insides felt all warm and fuzzy, although there was something going on his stomach that he had not felt in a long time. Butterflies…yes…butterflies.

“APPLE!” he shouted.

He rushed forward, tackling the man, enveloping him in his arms and holding tightly. Then he remembered he was a God and loosened his grip a little.

“Oh Apple it’s you! It’s really you! Oh I hoped you would come back, when the portal appeared it was all I could think of, seeing you,” said Apollo, well it was mostly the truth, “What have you been up too? Where have you been? I want to know everything, I want to know every, single, detail.”

He stepped back so he could look at him again and-…wait…no…something was wrong…

He looked into the face of his Apple.

The butterflies turned into something else…the fuzzy feeling still remained but…something else was encroaching on it…

“Apple…why...you’re…you’re…older…”

[Milo Thatch]

Milo let out a soft oof as Apollo launched himself at him. It was the most physical contact he'd had with another person in a decade, and for a moment, he wasn't sure how to react. Apollo let go of him before too long, though, and Milo took a quick breath. So many questions, most of them not even in the form of questions, and he bit his lip as he tried to sort them all out.

"I've been..." You're older, Apollo said, and even though he'd anticipated that observation, Milo couldn't help thinking well, yeah.

"It's been ten years," Milo pointed out, one hand still resting on Apollo's arm, fingers curved lightly around his bicep. They were very close, and even though he was talking about the time that had passed, in that space, Milo felt like he was eighteen years old all over again, flustered beyond rational speech by the attention focused on him by the god in front of him.

"I've been searching," he said, somehow managing to meet Apollo's eyes. "For this place, for the magic that made it, for..." Was it too much to say he'd been hoping to find Apollo here, too? Maybe they'd never worked out whatever it was Apollo had so adamantly wanted to happen between them, but that wasn't his fault, that was Milo's careful nature when it came to personal relationships. "I was teaching at a school back at home, and I got my degree. A couple of them, actually. What...what's the news from Olympus?"

[Apollo]

Ten years. It had been…ten years…

It has seemed less than that for Apollo, then again time seemed to move a little differently on Olympus, in fact, there was very little concept of time on the great mount other than ‘it is day’ and ‘it is night’. And if they did have to work in time it was usually in centuries and millenniums rather than years.

Oh but time…time…that cruel force that plagued the mortals…how…how could time have done this…

He noticed the hand on his arm, and could not help but smile, it felt nice, it felt warm, and then…he looked back and…

Well it was still him wasn’t it? Yes ten years might have passed but this was still Milo, he still acted like Milo, oh and the way he was right now, he just wanted to envelop him in his arms again and hold him tightly and never let him go. So he might be a little older now, it was still him and he could still see the young milo in everything that he did…and he had been searching…searching for a way back to this place! Of course he was, this place was perfect for someone like Milo who loved research and interesting historical and magical things, this place was like heaven to him. No wonder he wished to come back here. And that thought made Apollo even happier because he wondered…he wondered if maybe…maybe he wanted to come and speak more with him, maybe he wanted to learn more from the God of the Sun…

There was still a twinge there…a melancholy that pulled at him as he looked on his slightly older Milo. It wasn’t that he thought he wasn’t good looking anymore, oh he certainly was, still as gorgeous as he had been but the force of time was so apparent…and he hated being reminded of the mortality of mortals. Apollo’s past was littered with the tragic deaths of previous lovers, no matter what, tragedy claimed them in the end. Anyone that he had loved for more than a night had been lost to him, it was, in part, why he acted the way he did now, loving and leaving, forcing himself to forget before he grew too attached.

And now here it was…time working it’s cruel magic on his most recent beloved…

Well…time could go screw itself, he wasn’t going to let him claim this one, nor was he going to allow anything tragic to befall him…time might have claimed 10 years but that was it he would find some way to stop it, he would do anything he could find some kind of immortality for his Apple. He would swear…swear by the Fates tapestries…

He didn’t realise that in all that time he had just been standing there his hands still on Milo’s shoulders staring into his eyes…a good minute had passed before he finally responded, “OH! Oh Olympus is fine. Auntie Aphrodite got a new haircut which of course sent stepmother Hera into a rage because it was the same one as hers but of course Auntie Aphrodite looked much, much better in it and so now she’s sworn revenge on anyone that said that Auntie Aphrodite looked better than her. However I’m already on her list for a multitude of other reasons so I’m not really all that concerned.”

He remembered something and said, jumping up and down excitedly, “OH! OH! I have something to show you!! I found it earlier and well I was going to show it Mercutio but then I remembered that you would love to see this thing and well I hoped you might be here and I could show it to you and well I can show it to you now!! You’re going love it!”

[Milo Thatch]

Things went quiet, Apollo's eyes locked onto his, and Milo felt like the world might have stopped for a moment. For all he knew, Apollo could do that if he wanted to, just stop time around them. At any rate, he had no idea what was going on in Apollo's head, but he found that he couldn't look away anyhow. Apollo looked different...but Milo supposed that was a thing you could do when you were a god, you could probably look like whatever you wanted to look like. And he was also very much the same, his demeanor, his enthusiasm, the general radiance of his personality. He couldn't seem to look away.

Apollo finally broke the silence, though, launching into what sounded like the top highlights from an Olympus tabloid magazine. Did they have tabloid magazines there? Gods and Gossip? Deities Daily? At any rate, whatever it would be called, Milo was sure Apollo would be great at it, from the sound of things.

"Gosh," he murmured, eyes still riveted on Apollo's, "that's...such an extreme reaction to a haircut." He finally looked away, glancing around like he was afraid Hera herself might come down and smite him for saying such a thing.

He finally let his hand drop to his side when Apollo started jumping up and down, leaning back a little so as to stay out of the way of said jumping. He had no idea who Mercutio was, though. Like, from Romeo and Juliet? Was he here? He could remember a few of Shakespeare's characters wandering around, but as far as he could recall, they'd been people Shakespeare had written about, not people he had invented. For all he knew, there could be a whole dimension of Shakespeare's subjects, maybe all those stories were just documentation. Who could even be sure? It didn't matter, but perhaps the most relevant detail on that front was that Milo may have felt a little twinge of jealousy. What was it Apollo wanted to show him, Milo, that he had almost shown Mercutio instead?

He didn't even have the slightest guess, but he was very curious. "What is it?" he asked, reaching up to poke at his glasses with one finger. Last time Apollo had shown him something, it was a priceless ancient text, and Milo could only hope this was something equally fascinating.

[Apollo]

“I have no idea,” said Apollo smilingly brightly (really it was the only way he knew how to smile), “but you probably will because you are very smart as well as handsome.”

And older.

But he was trying not to think about that too much. He really was still handsome, very handsome. It was clear that Milo had spent just as much of his time back in his own world perfecting those muscles just as much as he was most likely still pouring over ancient texts and translating them. Apollo decided to take a moment to run his eyes over this new older Milo again, yes he still liked what he saw, even if he didn’t like being reminded of the mortality of mortals.

“Really…I’m so glad you’re here,” said Apollo, and because it was Apollo he rushed in to hug the man again, this time being more careful not to crush him.

He pulled away and said, “Ok, I’ll show you now, it’s in a room at the back of the library.”

He reached over and grabbed Milo’s hand in his and started pulling him towards the stacks of books. “So what have you been up to without me, you better not have been making deals with any other gods than me!” he said looking back at him with a wink.

[Milo Thatch]

Apollo didn't know what it was he was showing Milo? He wanted Milo to figure it out for him? That was...a lot of pressure, being asked to identify things for a god, especially a god who was as seemingly interested in you personally as Apollo appeared to be. But Milo had always thrived under pressure, he did remarkably well in high-stakes situations, and this felt much more like a challenge than something he ought to be panicking over. He was intrigued.

"I'm glad to be back," he said, returning the hug. It was so strange, he thought; it had been ten years, and he had not been sure he was ever going to see Apollo again, or if Apollo hadn't just found some other young man to center his attentions upon...but here they were, and it almost felt like they were picking up right where they left off. Well, Milo was older and wiser now, and he'd had plenty of time to think over their previous interactions. He could react to a hug, instead of standing there in shock like eighteen-year-old Milo would probably have done.

He held onto Apollo's hand and followed where he was led, back into the stacks of books. "Nope, no other gods," he assured Apollo. "Just me and my books. Lots of school. I finished my degree...well, it's really the two degrees that make up one title, kind of. It's all languages, though, and teaching techniques, because I really want to keep teaching here, once the school is running again. You know, I think there's just such an opportunity for linguistic exchange here, there were always so many people who speak so many different languages."

[Apollo]

Good. No other gods had been trying to take his things away from him. That was very good. That would mean a lot less killing. He was very into the whole vengeance thing but sometimes it was very exhausting, especially when it came to his family. Besides there was something a little different about his little apple, other than not being so little anymore, there was a slight…confidence to him now. It was odd, it was something that might have put him off or at least send warning bells around his head, but for some reason it just made him happy. And because it was Apollo and he literally knew that the sun revolved around him, he believed he was a part of that, that he had in some small way inspired it.

This was dangerous thinking and he knew it. He had thought this way before…

No. Keep it light, keep it surface, that was the only way, that way they don’t hurt too much, that way they don’t….

“Two degrees?” said Apollo, impressed, “well I am certain that you will make a very fine teacher indeed, I would expect nothing left from you. I am going to teach too I have decided, I was thinking I might take up teaching the arts again, drama in particular but you know I really think I might have a knack for guidance counselling, I could put people on the right track, inspire them to greatness, what do you think-AHA HERE IT IS!”

He pulled Milo into a small room where hanging in the middle was a bright shiny orb…not attached to anything…just hovering…and glowing…

[Milo Thatch]

Milo would have been highly alarmed if he'd had any notion that there could be killing on behalf of little old Milo Thatch, so it was a good thing Apollo didn't say any of that out loud. But Apollo wasn't entirely wrong; Milo had gained a lot of confidence over the past ten years, and it wasn't unreasonable to think that might have been in part due to the enthusiastic encouragement he'd gotten from Apollo. Having somebody believe in you could go a long way, and Milo had never really experience that at the level Apollo had provided it.

"You're going to teach?" He wasn't sure why that surprised him so much. Maybe because Apollo seemed to have a bit of a one-track mind, and teaching so often required so much multi-tasking. The guidance counselor thing, that he wasn't sure about, but...hey, Apollo had definitely given him some guidance in past, so who could be sure? "You could definitely, if you...oh, wow..."

He trailed off there at the end as he moved into the room after Apollo and caught sight of the...thing...there in the middle of the room. "What...wow, that's..." He moved in close, but not too close; he'd been around plenty of magical traps in his life and knew not to touch anything before he checked it out.

"Have you touched it?" He adjusted his glasses and peered at the sphere, trying to determine whether there was any kind of identifying features on any of the sides. "I think...there's something..." He passed one hand over the sphere, not touching it, just through the air surrounding it, then did the same below it. "Is there a magnifying glass in here anywhere?"

[Apollo]

Apollo looked a little sheepish (which was hard work for a God) and said, “I only touched it a little bit.”

He held up his fingers to indicate how much was a little bit and then continued, “I couldn’t help it! It was a big shiny orb, I mean, big shiny orbs are sort of my thing. However when I did it just sort of pushed me back, it was strange. It wasn’t like a big push or an angry one, just a sort of ‘nope, step back please’. Then I saw the marking and I knew it would be something that you would love.”

When his lovely little apple asked for the magnifying glass he nodded enthusiastically and pulled one out of thin air, “here you go.”

It was a beautifully ornate one, in gold of course, that being Apollo’s favourite colour, and engraved into the handle of it was Professor Milo Thatch.

“What do you think it is?” said Apollo, coming to stand behind him and look over his shoulder, “I thought it might be some sort of cosmic energy force from a different land that has been brought here and perhaps combined with modern technology to enhance whatever effect might lie within in order to produce much greater results…but that’s just a working theory…what do you think my dear Apple?”

What people tended to forget about Apollo was that underneath all the shallowness, whining and arrogance…there was the brain of a neurosurgeon…it just so happened to share the same brain as an egocentric drama queen. The fights were long and arduous...the drama queen often won.

[Milo Thatch]

Milo wasn't about to start scolding Apollo for being less cautious than he would have been. For starters, Apollo was an actual god; he probably couldn't get his hand permanently lopped off by a magical booby trap, and whatever hexes somebody might have put on this thing probably didn't apply to him. Milo, though, was susceptible to all the stuff human beings were generally susceptible to, including but not limited to the violent amputation of his limbs if he went around poking haphazardly at magical artifacts that might be rigged to explode.

"No, no," he said, hurriedly. "I mean, I personally don't usually touch stuff until I've had a chance to take a look at it, but you're probably way more indestructible than I am. I was mostly just wondering if you did touch it, what might have happened, so I'm kinda glad you did. Gives me a little more data to work with."

He took the magnifying glass that Apollo miraculously produced, and it wasn't until he actually held it out in front of him to use it that he noticed the appearance of it. Was that...his name? And the title he hoped he would soon have, no less? Milo looked from the magnifying glass back to Apollo's face, and gave him a little smile, just one corner of his mouth pulling upward far enough to cause a dimple.

Milo had never quite known how to respond to Apollo's advances. It had all been very much all at once when he was eighteen; he'd never known if he was supposed to just...throw himself into Apollo's arms and then...whatever things happened between a god and the very mortal object of his affections would happen? It was only a little less overwhelming now, but even so, it made him feel special and appreciated and for a moment, he wanted to sit there and bask in it. He shook off that particular urge, though, and murmured a quiet "Thank you," for the magnifying glass before leaning in to inspect the orb.

"You know, I...think you might be onto something there," he said, circling around the sphere slowly. "Wow, this is...there's three different scripts on here, from what I can tell. Two of them I haven't seen before, but I think this is Norse."

[Apollo]

“Well I’m glad I could help with my touching,” said Apollo cheerily, glad that he had not messed things up for his apple, “and I promise, next time you can have a good long look before I touch anything else.”

It really did make his heart melt to see his Apple look so pleased with the gift that he had given him. All the worries from earlier seem so far away in that moment, it was just the kind of smile that you could get completely lost in and in fact he did. Age had improved the young man, not that he wasn’t handsome before, but now. However that smile…that smile was still the same, and he was glad for it.

“You are most welcome,” he said softly.

Still standing behind him he hovered over Milo’s shoulder looking through the magnifying glass as he observed the orb.

“Norse,” said Apollo scrunching up his nose, “oh don’t tell me Loki’s involved. I hate that guy. I think I met one of his daughters the other day, although I don’t think she knew it. What about the other two, do they look like any other kind of language?”