(Temper)

Apollo POV

I know bad tempers.

I have a mild one, given the fact that I had made the Bubonic Plague and Malaria, and Cholera over stupid things.

I want a high power.

I want to be respected.

Being a poet, god, healer, (causer of plagues), and a musician doesn't get you that far.

But when I get somewhat close, Zeus makes me a human for fifteen years. But it takes me that long to be somewhat important in my society.

And Ares just doesn't care.

My own temper is running hot because of some lame quest that Heracles should be doing.

Not me.

But Ares could easily kill me, or curse me,—it's happened before—so I stay quiet as I search through the thick volumes on Odin's shelves.

I'm looking for anything from 2019.

But it's unlikely we'll find anything, given the fact that what we're searching for is twenty years—eighteen if we're being exact—into the future.

Apparently Ares has a girlfriend now, which is weird. And he's nicer, and LESS violent from the last time I actually hung out-talked to him.

Which was like fifteen reincarnations ago.

We never hung out as kids.

I'm kinda regretting that.

Do NOT tell him I said that.

And how does Ares have THIS bad of luck?

I mean, Sol died basically right in front of him.

Oh, uh, different example:

Zeus ditched Ares.

And his girlfriend's sick with hell knows what.

Well, technically an illness that hasn't been created yet and will most likely kill her.

And apparently she has visions.

And is currently unconscious.

Sooooooooo.....

Really bad luck.

And it isn't an older-sibling-teasing-younger-sibling thing.

This is legit.

I wonder if the reason people die around him a lot is because he's the god of warfare... Like one of his more direct reincarnations that lasted from 1914 to 1918. He went psycho. Or, if we're going for specifics, spontaneously combusted when he really got pist.

And he remembers it too.

And he does it well.

"Hey, Apollo, have you found anything?" Ares asks, as he plops a thick book on the small table I've been sitting at; the thick volumes overlapping with their dogged eared pages and bookmarked places, and just stacked in general.

The candle's wax splashes onto my hand.

I wince as the wax cools but burns my bare hand.

I glare at him. "No, I have not. And thanks for burning me by the way."

"Sorry," and he walks off into the littered library and it's endless shelves.

We were searching through the Prophecy.

An endless, future-telling library that Odin owns, and it took us an hour of persuasion for us to get him to let us in.

We each had to give up something.

Ares gave him a lock of his hair—which would have killed me.

And I gave up one of my lesser poems as knowledge for the library.

But I don't know WHY he rejects his.... Well, everything that Divine knows is accurate but he just wants to pretend it isn't.

Like, him being the god of war, or liking What's-Her-Face.

He seems...

Broken.

Genuinely broken.

I'm starting to realize that these things Ares wants me to fix, aren't exactly fixable.

I guess I feel kinda bad about it.

Maybe he's planning something behind my back, or he really IS hurt.

He knows his time's nearly up.

I'm kinda surprised he is not trying to, oh, I don't know, summon an army to come kill me or something.

He is doing nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Ares trips, and a book slams into the back of his head.

"THAT BETTER NOT BE YOU APOLLO!" he hisses, as he scrambles to his feet.

"Nope."

He rolls his eyes and slams the stack of books on the table.

"Now have you found anything?"

I shake my head. "Nope. You?"

"Nah, any idea where to find this thing you're looking for?"

"Well, it might be farther in... but I am not sure."

Ares groans. "CAN'T WE JUST FIND IT ALREADY?"

"Shhhhh," I hiss. "It's a damn library for goodness sake."

"Screw the library." he glares at me. "Hey I thought you were the god of prophecies."

"Well, technically I am, but I do not know everything, and there are other gods. And I do not control the prophecy, therefore I have no clue where to look. To you, this is just a large library, and I look like an idiot."

"Damn right you do." he rolls his eyes. "But SERIOUSLY?!"

"Don't send an army to come kill me, please."

His eyes glass over. "I'm just irritated. I just want to find this stupid book or scroll or whatever." He bites his lip. "I just want to get Korri back. Okay?"

I raise my hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay."

I didn't need details.

And we go back to examining the heavy volumes.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" Ares whispers.

He's downright terrified. He's crying. He's extremely quiet, but the river of tears running down his face and how hard he's shaking...

It's kinda making me freak out.

It makes him look... like a little kid. Instead of the adult who has that strong barricade that keeps anything from entering or leaving.

I guess Korri broke it.

She broke him.

His best friend is basically gone. He's back with a family who never wanted him to exist.

"I'm not crying, are I?" he asks, wiping his face furiously with his shirt sleeve, revealing his scars. "Shit."

I shake my head, and hold his wrists to stop him from fidgeting.

He tenses, but makes no move to stop me.

"Look," I sigh. "It's okay. She'll be okay."

"But what if she's not?"

I hug him.

"Okay," Ares giggles. "You're weird."

But he still clings to me.

He's never like this.

"You're making an Oath to never tell anyone about this." Ares whispers, pulling away from me.

His face is still wet, but he's smiling, even if he is sheepish.

"It's okay to cry." I say, but crying still freaks me out.

"I know you." He laughs. "You're dying inside."

I shrug. "I'm the older one, I'll suck it."

"Haha," his blackish blueish eyes glitter in amusement, and he goes over to the shelves again.

He drops a few scrolls onto the table, and sits on one of the chairs next to me.

"This is the last." He looks at the huge room. "I feel like I've unloaded fifteen shelves, but this room just looks fuller than before."

"That is probably because that is what happened." He makes a face, and I laugh. "The prophecy is full of things that WILL happen, AND things have already PASSED. And, it may or may not contain every single idea, thought, and creation of all humanity?"

Ares groans. "Does that mean I'm gonna have to put them back?"

"YES!" Odin shouts, and Ares winces.

I chuckle, and Ares shoots me a death glare.

"So," Ares breathes. "Is this it?"

I shrug, and set the bone dry ink pots on the new parchment as paper weights and pause.

"Um," I click my tongue. "This is witchcraft."

Ares snorts. "So?"

"We'd be banned from the Divine, idiot. This is the cheat route. So either, I get wrecked, and you're the same, or, I'm good, you're the same, its all good. One's witchcraft, the other isn't."

I can see red creep up his neck.

It's alway surprised me how quickly Ares's mood changed.

If you said one thing, he might get embarrassed, or if you said something else, you would immediately piss him off.

Sometimes it even depends on the person. Like, totally random example, if Korri said something weird, Ares might get confused, but would brush it off. If I said it, he'd kill me.

"Screw getting banned." He shrugs. "I'm already kicked out, I don't care, just give it to me-"

"Don't trust you worth a crap." I say, and Ares curses as a reply.

"Best case scenario IF I just let you walk out with that cure, you'd redo the Pompeii eruption."

Ares winces. "I guess that's fair." He slumps in his seat.

I pull out my notepad, and Ares raises an eyebrow.

"It's good to have pen and paper on hand," I smile. "Plus, they're less expensive now. AND more portable."

Ares shrugs.

"Moonstone, a feather golden bird, clear water." I frown. "I thought these things didn't exist."

Ares rolls his eyes. "Then you're a moron. Clear water is the opposite of salt water, I bet we could ask a nymph for that. Moonstone DEFINITELY exists, you could ask a dwarf where to find it. I do not know what the hell the 'golden bird' is."

"It's a bird that is attracted to other golden objects. The brothers Grimm heard of said rumor, and or story, and wrote about it." I sigh. "When they say 'clear water' they mean holy water."

"Oh." His eyebrows raise. "Welp, this is complicated. We should start looking."

"But we should try to learn of any clues to where said things may be."

Ares snorts, but doesn't meet my eyes. "We should hurry and just get the stuff."

"It will be quicker-"

His posture goes rigid. "No. We need to just go looking for them!"

"How quick do you think- Never mind. Look, this argument will last more than an hour if we let it."

He nods, his jaw clenched in frustration. "Okay, but this isn't over."

"Why are you like this?" I say. "You're always hot-headed, and snappy. And you keep wearing that stupid wig and make-up. Why-"

"Hate it. I hate my- I hate my family." He snorts. "If I could even call them that."

"Why though-"

"WHY? Why? Oh, I don't know! And in fact, if we're gonna ask random bullshit questions, then why in the hell are you so self-centered? And act like you're the most important person in the world?! WHY ARE SUCH SPOILED POMPOUS JERK?!" He snaps. "Why in the world do you believe the world spins around you?" he whispers.

Technically it does?

I freeze. "Um, Ares, you DO realize that it technically does spin around me? But... what?"

"You heard what I said Apollo."

"I- I dunno what to say."

His normal behavior is coming back I guess.

Maybe the whole Divine thing is causing it, and the fact that he's kept it locked up for years.

"Let's just get this over with." Ares whispers.

"Yeah, let's get it over with." I look at him. "But I know you didn't mean it."

He rolls his eyes. "I- Just forget it." He shivers. "Just forget it."

I wanna help him.

I just don't know how.

"Why act like this, Ares?"

He looks at the wooden floors. "I just do.