fic: Castles in the Air [PG, Rachel/Apollo]
Title: Castles in the Air
Author: ahmeemee
Written for: wishteria
Rating: Um...PG?
Characters/Ships: Rachel/Apollo
Warnings/Spoilers: None
Notes: Happy holidays!
There were lots of reasons why Rachel Elizabeth Dare shouldn’t want to get involved with her boss. Just off the top of her head she could think of three very important ones:
1. He was her boss, and she had seen enough workplace romances go wrong within her father’s company that she knew how awkward and uncomfortable it could get if things didn’t work out.
2. He was extremely fickle, and even if he did return her feelings it wouldn’t be for long. Most likely, she’d just be another in a long line of girls.
3. He was a god - more specifically, he was Apollo, god of the sun. When he was capable of turning her into a plant without even breaking a sweat, it made for a pretty big power imbalance. How do you make a god grovel for forgiveness after a fight?
No matter what the reason was, one thing was depressingly clear: the deepest relationship she could ever have with him was as his Oracle. To wish for anything more was like building a castle in the air: a lovely idea, but not at all grounded in reality.
Nonetheless, Rachel couldn’t help but light up with excitement when she came down the steps of Clarion Academy on the last day of class and saw him in Teen God mode, lounging negligently against his golden convertible.
The joy was quickly replaced by concern, though. Whenever Apollo needed anything of his Oracle, he popped up at random places and times - usually in the dead of night, when she was trying to get some sleep. He never waited for her at school.
“What’s wrong?” she asked as she approached.
Apollo, who seemed to be soaking up the interest and attention of Rachel’s schoolmates as they passed, turned to her and put on a wounded look. “What makes you think anything is wrong? Can’t a god visit his favourite Oracle without anything being wrong?”
“You never visit me unless there’s something wrong,” Rachel pointed out.
He waved dismissively. “Of course I do.”
“When?”
He thought for a moment. “That time I took you out for dinner, remember? I certainly do. You won’t believe how much ambrosia it took to get the vile taste of - what was it called? Baba ganich? - out of my mouth.”
“Baba ganoush,” Rachel said.“That was a year ago, and you tried to “encourage” me to make a prophecy about finding Aphrodite’s latest lover. By poking me with a fork. Also, you left before the bill came.”
“There you go!” Apollo said triumphantly. “A visit when nothing was wrong - except maybe for Aphrodite and that poor mortal of hers, I wonder if they ever got him back to full size. Now...” He slung his arm casually around her shoulders. “Let’s go for a drive.”
“Okaaaay.” This was doing nothing to assure her that everything was hunky dory. As much as the teenage romantic in her was hoping for a nice drive with the guy she liked, she knew better than to think it was anything as simple as that.
But he just laughed and touched her lightly under her chin, his blue eyes warming. “Don’t be so paranoid, sweetheart. Just go with it.”
“It’s not paranoia if I have reason to be suspicious,” she muttered. But she settled into the passenger seat of the car and tried very hard not to melt into a swooning puddle of goo when he slid in beside her and flashed her a smile that rivaled the sun for brilliance and warmth.
“Buckled in?” he asked. Without waiting for an answer, he slammed down the pedal and the car shot forward, hurtling towards the busy, rushing street in front of them, and before Rachel even had a chance to shriek, they were lifting off, soaring into the sky, with the rush of wind crisp on her face and the ground falling further and further behind them.
No one else seemed to notice the golden car flying over them. Rachel could never understand that - having been clear sighted all her life, she just couldn’t imagine how anyone could miss all the crazy and wonderful things going on right beside - and above - them. They were missing so much.
“Where are we going?” she asked. Despite their rapidly gaining altitude, it was still perfectly warm and comfortable in the car.
Apollo glanced over at her, looking very much like the god of the sun that he was. “Home!”
“Olympus?” Ha! She knew something had to be wrong. Mortals weren’t brought there just for kicks. Wait...if he were bringing her to Olympus, then something must be really wrong.
But he was shaking his head. “Better,” he promised, and the car veered so sharply to the side that Rachel let out an involuntarily shriek and held on tightly to the edge of her seat.
Up ahead, the clouds were parting to reveal a shining structure in the clouds. Rachel felt her mouth drop open. “That’s a castle in the air.”
“Yup.” The car rolled smoothly onto a driveway formed entirely by clouds, and Apollo hopped out as soon as it stopped. Gods, apparently, didn’t need parking brakes.
Rachel, on the other hand, was much more reticent about getting out. They were parked on a cloud, for crying out loud, and no matter how solid it looked, Rachel couldn’t help but imagine herself plunging through the mist and falling to a very gory and messy death.
And then Apollo was opening the door for her like any solicitous boyfriend, which did absolutely nothing to calm the pounding of her heart. “Come on,” he said, extending his hand to her. “Trust me.”
She took his hand.
The castle loomed over them, gleaming like something straight out of a fairytale. It seemed to emit a light of its own, here the rosy golds of dawn; there the deeper pinks and violets of dusk; and straight above them the near-blinding brilliance of the noonday sun. Among the towers and parapets, wind spirits zipped through windows and around banners, their voices melding into a sonorous murmur.
“This is amazing,” Rachel breathed. Her eyes were wide as she tried to take in all the details she could, trying to commit them to memory. She wanted to paint it, to capture this moment of gorgeous perfection, but she knew that no paints could ever be as rich or brilliant as these colours in front of her.
“Come on.” Apollo was still holding her hand, warm and strong, and he tugged her towards the doors.
“Waitwaitwait,” Rachel laughed. She was still trying to take everything in, but he was already pulling her inside.
Everything was a blur after that. Rachel had seen a lot of opulent houses, but nothing she’d ever seen compared to this. Sumptuous bedrooms as big as the ballroom in her father’s house, burbling fountains flowing into pools, gardens with flowers trailing in the air, music rooms with instruments across the ages, and the artwork! Works of such genius, everywhere she turned!
“What do you think?” Apollo asked, after the tour was over. “Think you can stay here?”
The unexpected question brought Rachel out of her rapturous daze. “What? Stay here? Why?”
He cleared his throat, suddenly looking a little less certain...and a lot more shifty. “Well, there’s a bit of trouble.”
“I knew it! What is it?” Triumph warred with disappointment, and disappointment won. Even the satisfaction of being right didn’t mean much, knowing that he’d only brought her here because he needed something from her, not because he wanted her to see his home.
He shrugged, looking too nonchalant. “My dear sister has lost her favourite stag, and she thinks I had something to do with it.”
“Why would she think that?”
“Probably because I did.”
“Apollo!” Rachel stared at him, exasperated.
He gave her a charming smile. “I like it when you say my name.”
Rachel felt herself go red, and she reminded herself that he didn’t really mean it, he was just trying to throw her off balance. And it was working. But still. “Why can’t you just give it back to her?”
His smile faded, replaced by a small wince. “I...uh...forgot where I put it.”
“You...forgot -- ” Rachel threw up her hands. Gods! All that power and no responsibility. It was a wonder they hadn’t managed to destroy themselves by now. “So that’s what this is all about? You brought me here to butter me up so I can give you some prophecy about how it can be found? You didn’t have to, you know. You could have just asked, instead of...instead of....” Instead of bringing me here and showing me this amazing place that no other home is ever going to live up to, and making me think that maybe, just maybe, you cared enough to want to share this with me.
He stepped closer and put a finger against her lips, suddenly looking very serious. “You know what Artemis said to me when she found out I took her stag? She said that since I took the thing that was most important to her, she was going to take what was most important to me. She meant you, Rachel.”
It was difficult to breathe, let alone speak, when he was so close, but the words escaped her in a soft whisper anyway. “Because I’m your Oracle?”
He shook his head, an almost imperceptible movement, and stepped even closer. “Because you’re you. I don’t visit my Oracles in the middle of the night. I don’t bring them to my home to protect them. And I definitely don’t kiss them.”
Hope bloomed inside her, so sudden and glorious that it was a wonder she didn’t simply burst from it. “You haven’t kissed me yet,” she whispered.
So he did.
A long time later, when the sky was dark and they were sitting in the garden looking out into the field of stars in front of them, Rachel thought back to all the reasons she’d given herself for not getting involved with her boss. Wanting to be more than his Oracle was like building a castle in the air, but here she was, high up in the air in a fairytale castle.
She was just snuggling up a little closer to him when a thought suddenly occurred to her. “Maybe we should look for Artemis’s stag.”
“Sure,” he said agreeably, but he didn’t move other than to lower his head to hers. “Tomorrow.”
Author: ahmeemee
Written for: wishteria
Rating: Um...PG?
Characters/Ships: Rachel/Apollo
Warnings/Spoilers: None
Notes: Happy holidays!
There were lots of reasons why Rachel Elizabeth Dare shouldn’t want to get involved with her boss. Just off the top of her head she could think of three very important ones:
1. He was her boss, and she had seen enough workplace romances go wrong within her father’s company that she knew how awkward and uncomfortable it could get if things didn’t work out.
2. He was extremely fickle, and even if he did return her feelings it wouldn’t be for long. Most likely, she’d just be another in a long line of girls.
3. He was a god - more specifically, he was Apollo, god of the sun. When he was capable of turning her into a plant without even breaking a sweat, it made for a pretty big power imbalance. How do you make a god grovel for forgiveness after a fight?
No matter what the reason was, one thing was depressingly clear: the deepest relationship she could ever have with him was as his Oracle. To wish for anything more was like building a castle in the air: a lovely idea, but not at all grounded in reality.
Nonetheless, Rachel couldn’t help but light up with excitement when she came down the steps of Clarion Academy on the last day of class and saw him in Teen God mode, lounging negligently against his golden convertible.
The joy was quickly replaced by concern, though. Whenever Apollo needed anything of his Oracle, he popped up at random places and times - usually in the dead of night, when she was trying to get some sleep. He never waited for her at school.
“What’s wrong?” she asked as she approached.
Apollo, who seemed to be soaking up the interest and attention of Rachel’s schoolmates as they passed, turned to her and put on a wounded look. “What makes you think anything is wrong? Can’t a god visit his favourite Oracle without anything being wrong?”
“You never visit me unless there’s something wrong,” Rachel pointed out.
He waved dismissively. “Of course I do.”
“When?”
He thought for a moment. “That time I took you out for dinner, remember? I certainly do. You won’t believe how much ambrosia it took to get the vile taste of - what was it called? Baba ganich? - out of my mouth.”
“Baba ganoush,” Rachel said.“That was a year ago, and you tried to “encourage” me to make a prophecy about finding Aphrodite’s latest lover. By poking me with a fork. Also, you left before the bill came.”
“There you go!” Apollo said triumphantly. “A visit when nothing was wrong - except maybe for Aphrodite and that poor mortal of hers, I wonder if they ever got him back to full size. Now...” He slung his arm casually around her shoulders. “Let’s go for a drive.”
“Okaaaay.” This was doing nothing to assure her that everything was hunky dory. As much as the teenage romantic in her was hoping for a nice drive with the guy she liked, she knew better than to think it was anything as simple as that.
But he just laughed and touched her lightly under her chin, his blue eyes warming. “Don’t be so paranoid, sweetheart. Just go with it.”
“It’s not paranoia if I have reason to be suspicious,” she muttered. But she settled into the passenger seat of the car and tried very hard not to melt into a swooning puddle of goo when he slid in beside her and flashed her a smile that rivaled the sun for brilliance and warmth.
“Buckled in?” he asked. Without waiting for an answer, he slammed down the pedal and the car shot forward, hurtling towards the busy, rushing street in front of them, and before Rachel even had a chance to shriek, they were lifting off, soaring into the sky, with the rush of wind crisp on her face and the ground falling further and further behind them.
No one else seemed to notice the golden car flying over them. Rachel could never understand that - having been clear sighted all her life, she just couldn’t imagine how anyone could miss all the crazy and wonderful things going on right beside - and above - them. They were missing so much.
“Where are we going?” she asked. Despite their rapidly gaining altitude, it was still perfectly warm and comfortable in the car.
Apollo glanced over at her, looking very much like the god of the sun that he was. “Home!”
“Olympus?” Ha! She knew something had to be wrong. Mortals weren’t brought there just for kicks. Wait...if he were bringing her to Olympus, then something must be really wrong.
But he was shaking his head. “Better,” he promised, and the car veered so sharply to the side that Rachel let out an involuntarily shriek and held on tightly to the edge of her seat.
Up ahead, the clouds were parting to reveal a shining structure in the clouds. Rachel felt her mouth drop open. “That’s a castle in the air.”
“Yup.” The car rolled smoothly onto a driveway formed entirely by clouds, and Apollo hopped out as soon as it stopped. Gods, apparently, didn’t need parking brakes.
Rachel, on the other hand, was much more reticent about getting out. They were parked on a cloud, for crying out loud, and no matter how solid it looked, Rachel couldn’t help but imagine herself plunging through the mist and falling to a very gory and messy death.
And then Apollo was opening the door for her like any solicitous boyfriend, which did absolutely nothing to calm the pounding of her heart. “Come on,” he said, extending his hand to her. “Trust me.”
She took his hand.
The castle loomed over them, gleaming like something straight out of a fairytale. It seemed to emit a light of its own, here the rosy golds of dawn; there the deeper pinks and violets of dusk; and straight above them the near-blinding brilliance of the noonday sun. Among the towers and parapets, wind spirits zipped through windows and around banners, their voices melding into a sonorous murmur.
“This is amazing,” Rachel breathed. Her eyes were wide as she tried to take in all the details she could, trying to commit them to memory. She wanted to paint it, to capture this moment of gorgeous perfection, but she knew that no paints could ever be as rich or brilliant as these colours in front of her.
“Come on.” Apollo was still holding her hand, warm and strong, and he tugged her towards the doors.
“Waitwaitwait,” Rachel laughed. She was still trying to take everything in, but he was already pulling her inside.
Everything was a blur after that. Rachel had seen a lot of opulent houses, but nothing she’d ever seen compared to this. Sumptuous bedrooms as big as the ballroom in her father’s house, burbling fountains flowing into pools, gardens with flowers trailing in the air, music rooms with instruments across the ages, and the artwork! Works of such genius, everywhere she turned!
“What do you think?” Apollo asked, after the tour was over. “Think you can stay here?”
The unexpected question brought Rachel out of her rapturous daze. “What? Stay here? Why?”
He cleared his throat, suddenly looking a little less certain...and a lot more shifty. “Well, there’s a bit of trouble.”
“I knew it! What is it?” Triumph warred with disappointment, and disappointment won. Even the satisfaction of being right didn’t mean much, knowing that he’d only brought her here because he needed something from her, not because he wanted her to see his home.
He shrugged, looking too nonchalant. “My dear sister has lost her favourite stag, and she thinks I had something to do with it.”
“Why would she think that?”
“Probably because I did.”
“Apollo!” Rachel stared at him, exasperated.
He gave her a charming smile. “I like it when you say my name.”
Rachel felt herself go red, and she reminded herself that he didn’t really mean it, he was just trying to throw her off balance. And it was working. But still. “Why can’t you just give it back to her?”
His smile faded, replaced by a small wince. “I...uh...forgot where I put it.”
“You...forgot -- ” Rachel threw up her hands. Gods! All that power and no responsibility. It was a wonder they hadn’t managed to destroy themselves by now. “So that’s what this is all about? You brought me here to butter me up so I can give you some prophecy about how it can be found? You didn’t have to, you know. You could have just asked, instead of...instead of....” Instead of bringing me here and showing me this amazing place that no other home is ever going to live up to, and making me think that maybe, just maybe, you cared enough to want to share this with me.
He stepped closer and put a finger against her lips, suddenly looking very serious. “You know what Artemis said to me when she found out I took her stag? She said that since I took the thing that was most important to her, she was going to take what was most important to me. She meant you, Rachel.”
It was difficult to breathe, let alone speak, when he was so close, but the words escaped her in a soft whisper anyway. “Because I’m your Oracle?”
He shook his head, an almost imperceptible movement, and stepped even closer. “Because you’re you. I don’t visit my Oracles in the middle of the night. I don’t bring them to my home to protect them. And I definitely don’t kiss them.”
Hope bloomed inside her, so sudden and glorious that it was a wonder she didn’t simply burst from it. “You haven’t kissed me yet,” she whispered.
So he did.
A long time later, when the sky was dark and they were sitting in the garden looking out into the field of stars in front of them, Rachel thought back to all the reasons she’d given herself for not getting involved with her boss. Wanting to be more than his Oracle was like building a castle in the air, but here she was, high up in the air in a fairytale castle.
She was just snuggling up a little closer to him when a thought suddenly occurred to her. “Maybe we should look for Artemis’s stag.”
“Sure,” he said agreeably, but he didn’t move other than to lower his head to hers. “Tomorrow.”