| PANDEMONIUM | Percy x Apollo

Chapter 17

Apollo flashed to Washington DC.

He just stood there for some time, trying to get a feel of the city and check for any abnormalities.

The city was full of abnormalities.

Being the capital, it had gained a weird amount of significance among the various pantheons. They had all exerted their influence here. So much so that almost all of the gods avoided the area like a plague because of the very high chances that they'll get sued for breaking treaties.

It was the best city for a hideout.

And it was very evident from where Apollo was standing, because he could sense thousands of protected pocket areas scattered all over the city.

He'll have to check each one.

And for Percy, and Will, and Meg, and Nico and Rachel and Piper and Leo, he would do it.

It would be an extremely tedious task though.

He'll have to consider asking for help.

He was sure some of them could be convinced. Especially his and Percy's  siblings.

-

Between interrogating Andrews, scouting out Washington DC and other possible destinations, and dealing with annoying siblings, along with doing his usual duties and handling his domains, Apollo was growing tired.

He decided to put off the scouting until he had help. If he too ended up getting caught, all of his efforts would be for nothing. If he wanted to save Percy and impress him, he had to make sure he didn't botch up his rescue mission.

He was so busy with his musings that he had momentarily forgotten that he was also at Avengers Tower, monitoring their investigation and search operation.

He was rudely made aware of the fact that the Avengers had decided to have pizza, when Tony shoved a pizza box into his chest. Had he been in ancient Greece, he'd have gotten smited for that.

Did they ever eat anything but pizza?

He vocalized his question, and was met with awkward silence. All the Avengers except Thor seemed to look at each other and urge someone to speak up.

Weird reaction, Apollo noted.

Steve cleared his throat, "None of us here really know how to cook. So most of the time we actually had real food was when Percy used to cook for us."

Oh.

Apollo hadn't expected to have his eyes well up with tears.

Nope. Nope. All this time Percy was taken from him and so many things had reminded him of Percy. But ofcourse it was Percy's cooking that was going to make him cry.

He remembered all those times that Percy had cooked for him. Just for him.

They used to hang out together. So much. Especially when Percy had only just ascended and needed guidance. His siblings weren't very good at helping him with matters above water, so the mantel had fallen to Apollo and he gotten closer to Percy than ever before.

"You're spending so much of your time helping me, the least I can do is make something for you." Percy had told him, hands covered in flour, kneading dough in the kitchen in Apollo's palace. He had made sure that the sun always hit Percy in just the right angles. He looked heavenly.

"You know you can just magic some food into existence right?" Apollo had walked closer to him, poking at the dough Percy was working on, making little dents on it.

The hands paused. Percy looked him in the eyes, they were moist with unshed tears. "My mother loves to cook for the people she loves. I seem to have inherited that trait."