Icarus was lying on his bed in the tower when his father came running in.

"Icarus!" He exclaimed, as he gathered up his notes and hid them under his bed. "It's done! The Labyrinth is finished and Minos knows it!"

Icarus bolted upright and looked at his father in shock. "Minos knows?"

Daedalus nodded meekly.

Icarus swung his legs over the side of his bed and looked to the floor. "What are we going to do?" Icarus said quietly. "What's going to happen to us?"

"I don't know. Minos is going to come and find me most soon enough, and I don't expect to be in his good graces." Daedalus almost laughed, but Icarus couldn't understand why. "I finished the Labyrinth days ago, but I never told him. Now he's found out that I lied, and he is most certainly going to punish me."

"Us." Icarus stressed. "He is most certainly going to punish us. He'll think I knew about this, I'll be punished for it."

Daedalus sighed. "I'm sorry Icarus. I wish there was something I could do."

"You didn't consider the consequences of lying to Minos and you should've done, because now look at where we are." He almost spat. "I might have to pay the price for your idiocy!"

He said nothing.

"I have finally reached a point within myself and in my life where I am happy. I'm satisfied, I have accepted this as my life, and soon enough I might not have a life to be happy with."

"Icarus I'm sorry." Daedalus frowned, seeing the tears form in the corners of Icarus' eyes. "I'm really sorry, I only wanted to give us more time."

"More time for what?"

"More time to think of an escape plan!" He grabbed onto Icarus' forearms pleadingly. "I have been trying to find a way to escape this place and I was trying to give myself more time to think. I almost had a fully-coordinated plan before Minos discovered the truth. Icarus, I only need more time!"

"Time is the one thing we don't have anymore!" Icarus yelled, stunning his father into silence with his anger. "We had time once, you should've done something then. We don't anymore, thanks to you."

"Icarus..." Daedalus said, almost in a whisper, with watering eyes. "Icarus, I'm-"

"Don't you dare say that you are sorry." He seethed through his teeth. "I don't want to hear you lie, not again."

"I didn't think, and I should've done. I wish there was something that I could do."

"There is."

"What?" Daedalus asked eagerly, clearly hoping to right a wrong with his son.

"Go." Icarus replied, with a snarl bitter enough to rival Nemesis. "Please, just go. You've done enough damage for one day."

Tears fell from Daedalus' eyes, but he nodded and obliged nevertheless. He looked at Icarus pleadingly, hoping he'd say something, but he remained silent and watched his father turn around, grab his notes from beneath his bed and walk upstairs to his workshop, where Icarus hoped he'd stay, at least until he had finished crying.

Icarus moved to the familiar comfort of his windowsill and dangled his legs over the side, so that they were swinging over the Crete countryside.

It's so high up, he thought as he looked downwards towards the palace courtyard and the rocky countryside. How far up was he? How many stairs did he climb to get up here? How long would it take to fall?

Icarus shook his head and looked to the sun for a few seconds, before shielding his eyes and looking away.

He wondered who was riding the sun chariot today? Apollo said that it would vary, sometimes he would ride it across the sky, sometimes Helios would. They took it in turns because it was only fair, they were both gods of the sun, and Helios was much older and much more experienced, it wouldn't be fair of him to take over completely.

I wouldn't like to meet Helios, he thought. He seems scary.

Apollo was the best thing in Icarus' life, it would hurt him too much to loose him, and it was too soon; they'd only been lovers for a few weeks, there was still so much more they wanted to do together. Icarus didn't want his life to stolen away so soon, especially at the hands of Minos. If he we going to die, it would be at the hands of someone honourable, or by his own.

Minos hadn't earned the right to kill him, not yet.

Icarus was still on the windowsill when night fell, but today it felt redundant. It wasn't making him happy, it wasn't giving him hope but he couldn't bring himself to move. He was hoping something would change, but nothing was. He still felt as hopeless as he did this morning.

Everything was perfect for the shortest time, and he thought that maybe, with Apollo by his side, staying in Minos' tower forever wouldn't be so bad; but his father had forced him to wake up from his daydream. It was absurd of him to think that Apollo would stay by his side forever; he was a god, he had no reason to stay. Any mortal would have him, and of course staying in the same room for his whole life wouldn't be good. It had driven him insane for eighteen years already, he couldn't stand another eighteen, or however many more years he was supposed to live.

If he were to stay here, he hoped it wouldn't be many.

"Icarus, the mood in here is dreary." Apollo said, taking his seat beside Icarus and immediately planting a quick kiss on his cheek. "Did something happen between you and your father?"

Icarus swung his legs back and forth. He seemed reluctant to give Apollo an answer, which only answered his question.

"Would you like to talk about it?" He asked, placing a warm hand on Icarus' shoulder. "I'm lucky to have thousands of years of experience, and despite the fact that I may not have learned much in the time, one of the things that I have learned is that it is always best to talk about your frustrations. Your problems are never solved if you don't talk about them."

Icarus let out a small involuntary chuckle. "The Olympic pantheon isn't exactly a functional family, so I find it quite humorous that you're giving me life advice, when you're family is as dysfunctional as it gets."

Apollo smiled in agreement. "My family isn't functional that's true, but that means I speak from experience. So many of my family's past issues and quarrels could've been solved if we'd just spoken about why we were upset, and yet we never did, and yet we've never learnt."

"My father finished the Labyrinth he was building for Minos a few days ago." He began. "It was what was keeping here. He kept the fact that he'd finished it a secret from Minos, and this morning Minos found out. My father said Minos intended to punish him for it, but knowing him the punishment will extend to me." He smiled sadly. "I got so angry at him because I feel that finally living my life is bareable, thanks to you, and now my father's put me in a position where I might lose it. I might lose you, and I don't want to."

Apollo's face fell to a sour, disappointed frown. He looked Icarus up and down, brought him in close and embraced him tightly, enveloping him in his sunlight warmth. "Your father doesn't intend to just take the punishment, does he?"

Icarus shook his head as he buried his head deep into Apollo's bare shoulder. "He said he'd find a way to escape. I don't think it's very likely."

"I wouldn't underestimate your father Icarus. He's a smart man, he'll find a way to save you."

"He may be a smart man, but he wasn't smart when it counted." He retorted angrily. "Look where we are, this is his fault."

"Be careful Icarus." Apollo frowned gravely. "I wouldn't go invoking Lyssa, or Nemesis. Whenever they appear, things do not end so well."

"I am reaching the end of my tether." Atropos said. "This charade must end soon."

"It will." Lachesis replied, watching over her sister, who continued to weave her string. "I can feel it."

"I'll be glad." Clotho added, as the delicately handled the red string between her calloused, dry fingers. "I'm beginning to get bored."