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The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and it was a perfectly warm summer day.
It was awful.
Percy glared blearily out at a rabbit from the cabin window, a steaming mug of hot coffee caught in a punishing grip as he silently willed the caffeine to enter his body.
A pair of arms twined around his waist from behind and Percy sighed, automatically leaning back into the familiar embrace.
“Having a rough morning, love?” Apollo asked softly, warm breath caressing Percy’s ear.
“It’s too early,” Percy said, still keeping his resentful gaze on the perfect mountain meadow outside.
Apollo remained silent, but Percy could feel the rumbling in his chest behind him. Percy pinched a hand that was clasped at his torso.
“Ow,” Apollo said, laughter still caught in his voice.
“Don’t laugh at me, I’m here aren’t I?” Percy grumbled but felt warm fondness invade his chest despite himself.
“That you are!” A chipper voice (not from Apollo) emerged from behind them.
Percy turned in Apollo’s embrace and brought the full force of his glare on a snickering Kayla. Too bad it didn’t work.
“Aww come on mom, don’t be like that!” Austin was the next person to receive Percy’s ire, but inside he felt as gooey as his mom’s cookies at the name Apollo’s children called him.
“Aren’t you excited to be here?” The plaintive question came from Yan, the only one with the grace to feel somewhat apologetic about dragging him out to the mountain cabin for their family retreat.
“Of course, I am.” With great effort, Percy plastered a happy look on his face. “I’m just not…a morning person.”
Yan titled their head, confused. “But it’s already 7?”
Percy felt pained at the reminder that all of his step-kids were morning people of the extreme variety.
“Yes, it is,” Percy sighed and gave up getting sympathy from anyone here. He could only look to his coffee for salvation, the black liquid looking inviting enough that he was tempted to stick his head in a whole pot of it.
Apollo kissed the shell of his ear, not in sympathy, but so that he wouldn’t be kicked out of the bed later that night. It worked nonetheless, and Percy gave Apollo a kiss at the corner of his mouth.
“Ugh, gross,” Will said, emerging from his bedroom. A chorus of boos met Will’s complaint. At least Percy had the support of his brood of stepchildren. Will stuck his tongue out before he turned back to Percy and Apollo.
“Ready to go?” He asked, already looking wide awake despite his lack of caffeine intake.
“Go where?” Percy asked, then took a sip from his mug.
“Hiking of course.”
Percy choked on his drink. “What?”
“Hiking,” Will said slowly like he thought Percy was being obtuse on purpose.
“Wait, wait hold on, time out,” Percy said alarmed, “No one told me anything about hiking.”
He glared up at Apollo, now wishing he had bitten the smirk off of the side of Apollo’s mouth instead of kissing it.
“I forgot,” Apollo said, shrugging.
“Forgot,” Percy bit out. Forgotten his ass.
“I can’t help you’re so distracting, love.” Apollo leaned down to try and soothe Percy with a kiss, but Percy stopped him with a hand to his face. Their audience just laughed, though it seemed like Kayla had her phone out to document the scrunched look on Apollo’s face.
“You don’t want to go hiking, Percy?” Yan again asked, seemingly concerned, though Percy was convinced their innocent face was hiding a devious soul. He hadn’t been able to prove it though and Apollo would neither confirm nor deny, so Percy was stuck giving into their every whim.
“No, I’d love to,” Percy said, though based on the renewed snickers his reluctance still shone through.
Yan’s beaming face added another tally to his “evil mastermind” evidence though.
“Just let me finish my coffee,” Percy conceded. He wished his cup was three times as big.
Four hours later, Percy was sweating, red-faced, and miserable. True to his word, Apollo and his kids had pulled Percy out of the cabin the moment that he’d finished his coffee, and Apollo had helpfully snapped hiking clothes.
Percy absentmindedly watched Jerry and Gracie run up the trail playing tag and wondered where they got the energy. At least Will had the grace to look tired. It was only fitting since they were practically in their middle age as demigods compared to the rest of them.
Perhaps sensing that Percy’s thoughts were about to spiral, Apollo sauntered back down the trail to Percy and caged him against a tree with one arm.
“Hey there gorgeous,” Apollo said, smiling winningly. “What are you doing in this neck of the woods?”
Percy snorted and pushed Apollo’s arm away from the tree, causing the god to scramble so he didn’t fall on Percy. While he pretended to seem unaffected by Apollo’s cheesy pickup lines, he was internally grateful for how Apollo always knew when to cheer him up.
Now caging him with two arms bracketed next to Percy’s head, Apollo tried again. “Come here often, handsome?”
Finally, Percy gave up on seeming impassive and smiled up at Apollo. “Oh, you know. I hike these mountains every day, three times a day.”
“That explains so much,” Apollo said, moving one of his hands under Percy’s shirt and running a teasing touch up Percy’s abs.
“Stop it, you,” Percy said snickering, and pushed his arm away. “Not in front of the kids.”
“Yeah, not in front of the kids,” Will yelled from further behind them on the trail.
Apollo rolled his eyes at his son and threw him a mock glare but moved away from Percy. They resumed their hike and, at least begrudgingly, Percy could acknowledge that the scenery was beautiful. The leaves of the surrounding foliage were bright green, interspersed with a variety of colors, and in the distance, Percy could hear the movement of wildlife.
Grover would love this place, Percy thought.
“Hurry up mom!” Kayla shouted out from the top of the slope. “We’ve got food and a thermos of iced coffee for you!”
Immediately, Percy felt himself pick up speed as if his body was trained to automatically respond to the mention of caffeine.
Kayla snickered at his renewed energy, but at least she also looked tired, the red of her face clashing with the green of her dyed hair. When Percy reached her, he ruffled her hair.
“Thanks for the encouragement, Christmas Tree,” Percy said teasingly and chuckled when she ducked out from under his hand, scowling up at him.
“Christmas Tree!” Austin exclaimed, pointing a finger at Kayla and laughing. While he also looked tired and sweaty, his neat cornrows kept his hair in better condition than the rest of them. Well, except for Apollo who never let himself look any worse than artfully messy.
“Hey,” Apollo cried out, a look of mock anger on his face. “We don’t mention such heathen ideals in this household.”
“I thought Christmas trees came from pagan origins?” Jerry asked with a hand on his chin.
“Not so, my young student,” Apollo tsked and wagged a finger at him, joking even as he started a long diatribe about the origins of the modern Christmas tree.
Just when Apollo started looking like a real himbo, he went and did stuff like this. What a shameless academic, Percy thought and smiled at the duo.
“You know--” Percy jumped at the sudden voice from behind him. Will had snuck up on him, the soft grass of the meadow muffling his steps. “You really do make him happy.”
Percy turned back to look at Apollo. He felt a smile pull itself unwillingly across his face at Apollo still explaining to a regretful Jerry the culture that spawned the Christmas tree.
“He makes me happy too,” Percy said, just knowing that he had a mushy look on his face. This was confirmed by the grossed-out sound Will made. But even that sound lacked any real disgust.
“Yeah, I can tell,” Will said, then he walked up to stand beside Percy and put a hand on his shoulder. “You know how we all cornered you after it came out that you were dating our dad?”
“Yeah I do,” Percy said, glaring at Will as he remembered the shovel talk that he had gotten from each of them. Austin had given an earsplitting recital with a purposefully out-of-tune violin, which he ended with the threat to make Percy sit through again if he ever hurt Apollo.
“Well, we gave him one as well,” Will said, smiling at Percy. “The next day we all called him down to our cabin and did the same thing to him. He looked like he was about to cry at Austin’s horrible music.”
Percy smirked at the thought that someone else had suffered more than him from that, but let go of his humor in favor of feeling touched at Apollo’s own kids giving the god a shovel talk.
“Thank you for that,” Percy said and fully turned to face Will. “But just know I have first dibs if he ever hurts me.”
“I’d expect nothing less,” Will looked intrigued at the thought of what Percy would do to Apollo. “But I hope it never comes to that.”
“Me too,” Percy said, sighing and looking back at Apollo, who had relinquished poor Jerry and was instead helping the rest of them set up a giant picnic blanket. “Come on, let’s go help.”
The two of them meandered over and were greeted by joking chastisements for taking so long. Apollo joined in but judging by the soft look in his eyes, he had been paying attention to Percy and Will’s conversation.
Percy accepted a peck from Apollo before he crossed his arms at Kayla and frowned. “Now, where’s my coffee?”
It was still only 11 am after all.
Later that night, after a long day filled with more hiking and swimming at a mountain lake found at the end of a trail, Percy laid in bed cradled in Apollo’s arms.
“Thanks for inviting me,” Percy said. He tucked his head into the crook of Apollo’s shoulder and placed a gentle kiss there, feeling the shiver that ran through Apollo’s body at the touch. “It means a lot to me that you brought me along on a family trip.”
“Of course, how could I not?” Apollo kissed the top of Percy’s head. “I am serious about you, you know. And the kids know it too. They wouldn’t call you mom otherwise.”
Percy blinked away the tears pricking at the corners of his eyes and pressed himself further into Apollo’s embrace.
“I’m serious about you too,” Percy whispered. He could still only make these kinds of declarations in the dark when he was unable to the deep blue of Apollo’s eyes. But even without seeing them, he could still feel their burning gaze and he blushed, sure that Apollo would be able to see him in the dark.
“I want as long as you are willing to give me, Percy,” Apollo confessed, running a warm hand through Percy’s hair. “And I want the next of my kids that call you mom to be ours.”
Gods, if Percy hadn’t been close to tears before he would be now.
“I’ll hold you to that,” Percy said, the words both a threat and a promise for their future.
“I expect nothing less,” Apollo replied, tightening his hold on him.
Percy let the silence linger for several moments before he broke it again, a lighter tone in his voice. “I don’t expect any less than three.”
“Of course, love,” Apollo promised absently, still playing with one of Percy’s curls, then paused. “Wait no less than?”
Percy smiled into the crook of Apollo’s neck, looking forward to his future with Apollo more than he’d ever had before.
Even if it did have more early mornings in store.