Hopeless Love

"If you knock again..." Apollo trailed off, allowing the air to carry his words.

The door swung open immediately. Hermes stepped into the solar, his hands in the air. "I have travelled all this distance, fought many terrifying monsters, and waged war against mighty gods just to deliver the message to you, my dear brother, free of charge."

Hermes wore a white tunic cinched to his waist and a wool robe across his shoulder, as well as a wide helmet and a pair of shoes with small wings sprouting from the sides—Hephaestus' gift.

"It's not like I'm going to pay you," Apollo said bluntly. "Anyway."

"Oh..." Hermes dramatically placed his hands over his heart.

"Sit down," Apollo pointily ignored his antics, pointing to the chair in front of his table. "And give me my message."

Hermes seemed to be even more distraught, but he still heeded his words. He sat in the chair opposite him and handed him the scroll with a rose symbol—a message from Aphrodite.

"What is that?" he asked, his other hand pointing to the pizza on the plate on the table.

"Pizza, I made it," Apollo said as he accepted the scroll. "It's a dish from the future; would you like one?"

Cooking. He was serious about getting into cooking. And he quickly grasped the gist of it, becoming a master chef capable of giving all future chefs a run for their money.

Being a god certainly has its advantages. There is no need for tedious practice, handwork, or rehash; all you need is complete knowledge of the topic/profession/skill, and you will become an unrivalled master of it immediately.

Apollo chose pizza as his first dish to reinvent with his divine cooking skills since he missed pizza.

After finishing his first divine pizzas, he served them to Hecate on their moonlight date. Hecate obviously fell head over heels for the pizza and, especially, its chef yet again, and then she...

Let's just say that night was very long, metamorphically and literally, and it was totally worth it.

"Yes," Hermes responded, his gaze fixed on the pizza. He gulped as its enticing armor of exploding flavors blasted his face.

Apollo smiled as he snapped his fingers. In the light, a plate of pizza appeared and floated towards Hermes. He quickly grabbed them and bit into one of them with incredible speed. As he began wolfing them down, his expression changed to one of delight.

"How is it?" Apollo inquired as he read the scroll's contents: a message from Aphrodite.

"It's not bad, brother," Hermes said in between bits, but his relishing tone and puffy mouth betrayed him completely.

Apollo just snorted. "Eat slowly, imp."

Hermes hummed indignantly. But he was too fixated on his pizzas to care about reproach.

"What does Aphrodite want?" After a few moments of silence, he finally asked.

"Well..." Apollo scribbled some of his new romance story ideas on the scroll. "The same old."

"Aphrodite is looking for input on her new stories."

Aphrodite is obsessed with stories, particularly tragedies and romances, to the point where she began writing them herself. So she came to Trier frequently with her ridiculous and pompous son, Eros (hated that guy), to ask for advice from him and the nine muses to get inspiration for her stories, and in exchange, she promised to give them credit in her stories.

Aphrodite then began to direct her stories in the mortal world. She uses humans as her actors (toys), assisting (manipulating) them to fall in love their destined ones. And she would let them take their fated path since Aphrodite believes that love should not be completely restrained. She will still check in on them from time to time to see if everything is perfect according to her standards, and if it isn't, she will break the love in the most dramatic and tragic way possible.

With the help of the nine muses and him, she published her favorite stories of the mortals throughout the divine realms of all pantheons and in all languages of the earth.

And it was an immediate hit with the gods. If there were a billboard chart for stories, Aphrodite's tragic and dramatic tales would most likely have broken it. Her fame and reputation skyrocketed, as did the sales of her stories, and she gained even more fans among the gods.

Hermes hummed as he returned to his pizza treat, clearly uninterested in the next heartbreaking love story that Aphrodite was probably cooking up.

Though Apollo was certain, he saw a glint of sadness in Hermes' eyes when he mentioned Aphrodite.

Hmm, intriguing....

Hermes wolfed down the rest of the pizza and extended the empty plate to Apollo, asking, "Can I get some more?"

"Well," Apollo said, tilting his head. "Who was the one…"

"Please," Hermes admitted defeat to his brother, "your cooking is so delicious that I'm sure it's unrivalled in the realms of the gods, and I believe it won't be long before you ascend to the position of god of cooking..."

"Enough, Hermes," Apollo said with a smirk and a snap of his fingers.

A golden plate with pizzas appeared and dashed towards Hermes.

"The pizzas will never run out as long as you want."

"Thank you," Hermes said, his eyes welling up with tears. "You are the greatest brother in the multiverse."

Apollo merely gave him a look. "Just eat."

Hermes immediately obeyed, devouring the delectable pizzas and savoring every bite.

"So," Apollo leaned back in his chair, making himself more comfortable. "Olympus?"

"Nothing new," Hermes said as he pointed a slice of pizza at Apollo. "Though the divine quest issued by you to slay that ice lizard caused some commotion, it piqued the interest of many, including Athena, Ares, and Hera..."

He cast him a sidelong glance.

"You mean primarily Hera," Apollo corrected nonchalantly.

"Aren't you even slightly concerned that she'll steal the quest from you?" Hermes inquired in-between bits.

"No," Apollo stated flatly. "The one who will slay the dragon will only be my knight."

Hermes stared at the last piece of pizza, his eyes gleaming with complicated light.

He then sighed. "How are you always so confident in the face of everything, brother?..."

Apollo looked at him for a moment, then said quietly, "Believing in myself."

He wasn't being cheesy about it. It was literally the truth.

"Believing in myself..." Hermes said again, his eyes snapping at his brother.

"Yes," Apollo said emphatically. "I believe in myself."

Hermes couldn't believe it. "It can't be that simple!"

"Hermes..." Apollo smiled, "sometimes the most difficult questions have the most simple answers."

"So, do yourself a favor and believe in yourself, huh?" he said, pointing to his heart.

His impish little brother, Hermes, had a rocky start on Olympus. It didn't help that he, Artemis, Athena, Ares, and Hephaestus were his brothers and sisters. They completely overshadowed Hermes in almost every way.

Hermes averted his gaze from Apollo, nodding curtly. Then he inquired, abruptly changing the subject. "Where is Hecate, brother?"

Apollo squinted at Hermes, but ultimately decided not to press any further. He really wasn't good with this emotional stuff.

"Hecate is practicing her new destructive spells in the testing room beneath Delphi..."

"So that's why the entire continent was rumbling every now and then, huh?" Hermes muttered under his breath. He then proceeded with the pizzas.

Apollo returned his attention to the scroll of Aphrodite, continuing to write his suggestions for the Goddess of Love, making space for Hermes, who appeared to be in desperate need of it.

Hermes rose from his seat and walked towards the earth's projection, observing it. In the comfortable silence that hung in the air, his restless heart calmed down.

Apollo placed the Aphrodite scroll on the table and took his religion file after adding his advices and thoughts to the scroll for the next story of the Goddess of Love. With his contributions, another hit is confirmed.

He concentrated on his file, which contained constantly changing information. It displayed information about his religion, particularly about the first quest he had personally issued—slaying the divine dragon, Pagos.

His religion was the most prevalent in the Western world; despite divine punishment from him, the religion of the Sun remained unaffected. After all, human civilization was entirely dependent on him in one way or another.

Everything that made them who they were belonged to him: their fire, their language, their order, their hope, their knowledge, their art, and their music. His mark of divinity blazed through most aspects and concepts that made up western civilization, so much so, he predicted he would gain divinity of 'Civilization' when his humans developed further, breaking the borders set by the pantheons with the rest of the world.

He had laid the groundwork for human civilization. And his hold on humanity was unbreakable and unassailable. He gave them everything, and with a single thought, he can take it all back, obliterating western civilization.

Faith – Apollo himself never considered the power of faith as it was a two-edged sword. Gods could easily increase their power with the faith of mortals, but as the saying goes, all power has a cost. The gods would be affected by the mortals - their prerceptions, thoughts, expectations, and stories. Mortals would have the same amount of power over the gods as they did over them.

There is an excellent example of this situation. It's from a book series he read in his previous life, Percy Jackson and the Olympians. In that story, there is another Olympian pantheon and another Apollo.

Apollo frowned; a pang of sourness filled his heart. He promptly pushed that pang into the recess of his heart and continued on, ignoring his last thought.

Anyway, in that story, the Olympian Gods have survived until the modern era because they are tied to western civilization. They literally live off the memories and myths that humans have perceived about them. Even their personalities were affected by the mortals. If one considered it carefully, it was a truly terrifying prospect—they literally have no freedom at all.

Overall, faith is poison for the gods; not only he, but the majority of the gods agreed, and they never attempted to wield the power of faith, regardless of their earthly religions. The revelation that mortals would have power over them was all it took for the gods to absolutely despise the concept of faith.

"Brother," Hermes said as he set the empty golden plate on the table.

Apollo hummed, his gaze still fixed on the file.

Hermes asked, fiddling with his fingers. "While we're on the subject, I'd like to seek advice."

Apollo set the file down and turned to face him. "On what subject?"

"Love," Hermes said, his gaze unconsciously drawn to the scroll of Aphrodite. "I want advice on love.."

Apollo followed his gaze. "So you fell in love with love, huh?"

Hermes blinked. "I am that easy to see through," he said, waving his hands. "But first and foremost, why aren't you surprised by this?"

"Should I be?" Apollo chuckled. "Aphrodite is the Goddess of Love and Beauty; it would be strange if you didn't feel any Desire towards her."

"Not, Desire." Hermes corrected, "Love."

"Yes, yes," Apollo said coolly. "Love. So tell me everything; I'm all ears."

Hermes took a deep breath, and then he said. "I love Aphrodite, brother. I didn't when I first started having feelings for her; perhaps I always did from the moment I first laid eyes on her; she was just too gorgeous and ephemeral, so much so that..."

"Stop," Apollo urged. "Everyone already knows how lovely and unearthly Aphrodite is, so skip the details and get to the point, Hermes."

Hermes nodded, hesitantly, disappointed that he couldn't describe his love. "My feelings for her grew stronger by the day, until I couldn't control them any longer, so I decided this was it, and I'd never felt so certain in my life."

"I stopped Aphrodite in her path on the night of the full moon and proposed to her, pouring out my heart to her..."

Then he came to a halt. His words struck in the throat.

"Let me guess," Apollo said quietly, "you were rejected..."

He shouldn't laugh. He really should not laugh, especially in this situation.

"Hahahahahaha!" Apollo laughed, "Hermes, you were actually rejected by Aphrodite..."

His mocking laughter pricked Hermes' heart, and the God of Deceit clasped his hands, uttering belligerently, "Brother, is this how you treat me when I share something so personal with you?"

"I thought, I thought..." he whimpered.

"I'm sorry," Apollo said, his laughter fading and his feelings utterly bad. "I'm sorry, Hermes. That, you see, was shocking. I needed some time to process it."

"Yes, it may be too shocking for you," Hermes scowled. "After all, who are you? The Eternal Blazing Sun! The honored one who is praised and loved by all! Who are you to know what it feels like to be utterly and hopelessly rejected by the one you loved the most?!"

"No," Apollo said, shaking his head, "it's not like that..."

"Never mind," he said after a brief pause. "You wouldn't get it now anyway."

"Apollo…" Hermes seethed, storming out of his room. "It was my mistake to tell you this…"

"Stop," Apollo said as he appeared in front of Hermes, his hands on his shoulders halting him. "I was being an emotionless jerk..."

"Certainly," Hermes said, glaring at him. "You are truly the emotionless jerk, O honored one; nobody could beat you at that."

Apollo called up a golden plate with pizzas that were literally dazzling with flavor and said, "I'm sorry," in the most sincere voice he could muster.

Hermes stared at the pizza for a long time before taking a bite and snorting, "I'll forgive you, just this once, brother."

"Come on," Apollo said, placing his hands over Hermes' shoulders and dragging him back to his solar.

"I will give you advice," Apollo said, easing Hermes' scowl.

Hermes took his seat in front of Apollo, who sat back behind the silver table. The God of Thieves was already back to enjoying and savoring the scrumptious pizza.

"Aphrodite," Apollo began, making sure Hermes was calm.

Hermes set the pizza down and wiped his hands with a swift wave of the wind. Then he turned solemnly to face his brother, raptly listening.

"You see, Hermes, Aphrodite is not like most women; she is the Goddess of Love and Beauty who believes in herself absolutely, so she can be extremely dominant, if you know what I mean."

"Dominant?" Hermes asked, blinking.

Oh, this is going to be very difficult.

"How many relationships has Aphrodite been in, Hermes?" Apollo asked.

"Brother!" grumbled Hermes.

"Tell me," Apollo demanded.

"A lot..." Hermes said, a sour expression on his face.

"Honestly, I don't know..." He looked downcast at the ground.

"Well," Apollo continued soothingly, "who took the first initiative in all of this?"

Hermes remained silent for a moment before turning his stare toward Apollo. "Aphrodite."

Apollo crossed his arms and looked at Hermes, expecting Hermes to deduce the truth for himself.

"Brother..." Hermes inquired, somewhat hesitantly. "You mean, Aphrodite is dominant in everything?"

"Yes." Apollo emphasized. "'Everything'."

In a matter of microseconds, Hermes' expression changed from incomprehension to disbelief, sadness to grief, and finally to melancholy.

Apollo could only speculate on what was going on in his mischievous and brilliant mind, but he continued anyway, not wanting him to completely fall into the trouble known as "Aphrodite."

"That's why, Hermes, Aphrodite rejected your advance; in my opinion, you can do better than Aphrodite; find someone willing to give their entire heart rather than just a piece of it for their own amusement."

Hermes hung his head, his emotions obscured behind his own shadow.

Apollo, being the considerate brother that he is, immediately poured a glass of ambrosia for Hermes and handed it to him.

Hermes took the glass, drank it all, and returned it to him for more. Apollo then poured more for him. This happened again and again, making Apollo frown.

He got up from his seat. "Come with me, Hermes; we're going to do that challenge we've always put off."

"Finally?" Hermes asked, his eyes bright with excitement. However, it was quickly extinguished. "No, you'll let me win just to make me feel better; I don't need your pity, brother."

"No, idiot," Apollo chuckled as he lightly punched him on the shoulders. "It will be a fair contest."

Hermes sulked on the ground, his gaze fixed on the ground.

Apollo sighed and then yelled. "Athena!"

There was a brief moment of silence until a blaze of light erupted in front of them, morphing into a divine projection of the Goddess of Wisdom.

Athena fixed her gaze on Apollo, her face as expressionless as ever. "You know, Apollo, I was preparing for something very important when you called,"

"It is actually related to that," Apollo said. "We want to have our match in the mortal games you are conducting, and we also want you to personally preside over it."

For a brief moment, Athena squinted at him, and Apollo could clearly see her stormy grey eyes turning calculative, inferring all the advantages and disadvantages of this course of action.

She then curtly nodded. "Well, it's tomorrow, and everything is set in stone. But I could make an exception for you."

"Hermes?" Apollo elbowed Hermes.

Hermes nodded silently, getting to his feet.

"What happened to him?" Athena finally looked at Hermes, who was depressed.

Apollo mouthed. Aphrodite.

"Oh..." Athena nodded clearly, as if she could already guess everything.

"What are the games called?" Hermes finally asked, his gloom fading.

"Olympic games," they said in unison.