Pandemonium

Percy felt like shit.

He had been feeling queasy for many hours by then, but he just thought it was because he hadn't eaten anything in nearly two days, had worked himself to the ground trying to find his mother and hadn't slept a wink or stopped to rest. Even gods can run out of fuel and he had run out hours ago.

But, what he had started feeling for the past hour wasn't same thing, and it took him too long to realise that.

When he pulled out his phone to call Apollo, he only had a moment to remind himself to disguise the colour of ichor when he started coughing it up.

His whole body ached, joints creaking and cracking like a machine. He couldn't sense two of his domains, and he was coughing up ichor. His vision and his thoughts were turning hazy with every passing minute.

He must have looked like shit too, because by the time the meeting had ended, they had all looked at him with alarming degrees of concern.

After that, most of their faces blurred together.

He felt like he was floating in the air. Was he on a hot air balloon?

He started coughing again.

He figured he had godly tuberculosis from his symptoms but he could be wrong.

Did gods get tuberculosis?

Probably not. But gods also didn't have gay arranged marriages until he came along.

There was a first time for everything right?

Is that Apollo? He thinks he can see a golden blob. Or is that the sun? Isn't Apollo the sun?

Warm and calloused hands cupped his face. It feels so nice, he thought, as he slipped away into darkness.

-

Apollo was finishing up on Percy's portrait when he saw Percy's call. Picking up immediately, he had only heard the first two words when he wore a yellow sweater and jeans and decided to materialize outside Avengers Tower.

Taking a quick decision he sent another part of his conscience to where he sensed Triton.

Apollo was met with ice cold water and at least 10 spears aimed at his neck. Triton seemed to be in the middle of a military training exercise. His twin tails twitched in annoyance when he spotted Apollo, but his princely demeanor and carefully crafted neutral expression stayed, indicating that he still hadn't warmed up to Apollo since five years ago.

"There better be a good reason for this, cousin. If you weren't my brother-in-law, this would be considered an act of war."

It was then that Apollo noticed that he had just materialised in the Atlantean Army's training arena. They were probably preparing themselves for a possible war after last night's council meeting. Percy wanted to do the same with the camps as soon as he was done talking to the Avengers. Seriously, the siblings were more similar to each other than they thought. Or maybe it was just Uncle P's genes.

"Percy's not well." He said.

Triton looked terrifying, eyes luminous in the water, wearing princely robes, surrounded by heavily armed mermen, half of whom had their spears aimed at Apollo's throat.

"Where is he?" Triton's voice was cold as it echoed in the dimly lit underwater arena.

The spears inched closer to his throat.

"Wait Tri, just listen to me for a second. A part of my conscience is already there with him. The si-"

"Tell me where he is." Triton paused after every word, voice low and deep. It sent chills down Apollo's spine.

If he was going to help maintain Percy's cover in front of the Avengers, he had to tread carefully.

The tips of the spears inched even more closer to him.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Kym and Rhode materialise in the arena, probably attracted by the commotion he had caused. All the soldiers except the ones holding spears at him saluted the newly arrived royals.

Kym and Rhode walked up to them and Apollo dared to hope that they would be more considerate of him. But he had no such luck.

More armed guards pointed spears at him.

He needed to do this fast.

-

Percy becoming ok again was his first priority but what was also a priority was maintaining their cover story. Magically materializing in front of the Avengers would make Percy very mad.

So Apollo just pushed right through everyone in the lobby, effectively causing a scene, forcing his way to the elevator and asking it take him to Percy. But the lift wouldn't open.

"Take me to Percy! I'm a doctor." He screamed at the ceiling. People were taking videos of him. He forgot he was famous among mortals. He had half a mind to fuck it all and just materialise in front of Percy. But he and Percy had only just started talking again and he didn't want to mess it up.

A smaller voice inside him whispered that if he didn't risk it now, he might never get to speak to him again.

He pushed the voice aside.

The elevator doors opened and he got in. The elevator seemed to know what to do. He knew about Stark's AI system. But he also knew that no elevator went up this fast with humans in it.

He clung onto the sides of the elevator to make it look believable and cursed Percy's overprotective friends and family for making him put up with this shit.

The elevator came to a stop and he was greeted by the Black Widow's gun and Hawkeye's arrow to his face.

Overprotective indeed.

"Percy called me." He told them, raising his hands up to show he was unarmed and meant no harm.

They were still suspicious but seemed to sense that he was worried for Percy and asked him to follow them.

He could sense Percy. Even his power signature was dwindling and unstable and was making Apollo extremely worried. Something was very wrong.

The floor they were in looked to be the Tower's med bay. It was situated almost midway, making it equally accessible from both the top floors and the ground floors.
It was well lit and well maintained with squeaky clean floors and tiles and clear glass partitions between rooms full of bustling doctors and nurses, some of them attending to minor injuries, some conducting various experiments and others manufacturing prosthetic limbs. Everything looked high end and sophisticated.

As the god of healing, Apollo was impressed.

Percy was tucked away in a room in the far corner of the floor. The glass was tinted to prevent anyone from seeing inside. The rest of the Avengers and a handful of doctors were in the sterile room.

Percy himself was lying on a comfortable bed, hand connected to an IV, his skin pale and sickly. He looked older than he was and kept muttering to himself.

Apollo thinks he caught Percy whisper his name, but dismissed it as wishful thinking.

Apollo forgot everything else in the room. The Avengers were all trying to talk to him, the doctors had been beyond startled by him. Now that he thought of it, even the two assassins who had escorted him had tried to make conversation, but he had been busy ascertaining whether this place would suffice to treat whatever was ailing Percy.

Now that he could see Percy, he saw the poison coursing through his veins. It wasn't Percy's poison. This was a foreign substance. Something so vile that even Percy couldn't contain it. He had sensed it enter Percy's system in the morning.

How he wished he hadn't let Percy out of his sight.

He rushed to Percy's side and cupped his face. He tried to speak in Percy's mind, call out his name, but Percy drifted off, going limp in his hands.

Apollo only had a split second to make sure that the heart monitor didn't start beeping. Gods didn't have heartbeats if they didn't will it to be there.

He could cure Percy considerably with some Ambrosia and Nectar but he needed to do it in a believable way with the doctors and the Avengers around.

He took one long look at Percy. He was breathing unevenly, and looked like he was in a restless sleep. Apollo could hold his hands and channel his powers into Percy to give him some immediate relief but his hands would glow and he couldn't risk it if there were any clear sighted mortals around. So he gave Percy a small, reverent kiss on his forehead instead.

Immediately, some of his colour returned, his breathing became more even and he looked a little more at peace.

-

Tony watched as Apollo kissed Percy's forehead and reluctantly stood up.

What had Percy said about his Apollo's relationship again? Best friend's brother.
With whom he was seen fighting in public. Have known each other since being teenagers. First person to call in a crisis. Just kissed him on the forehead.

What else did he know? Apollo was unhappily married, and Percy's relationship status was 'complicated'.

Percy would know better than to steal another person's man. But then again, he didn't know the man as well as he thought he did.

He watched as Apollo ran about the room, doing lots of complicated medical stuff like he was an expert. The doctors looked impressed. Maybe the guy really was a doctor.

Honestly, wasn't there anything this guy couldn't do?

After about ten minutes of urgent movements, Apollo seemed to calm down and step back. He then asked for a glass of water and something healthy to eat, which one of the doctors, Dr. Luis, hurried to get.

When the doctor brought it within five minutes, Apollo grabbed the glass of water, dipped his fingers in it and splashed some of it onto Percy's face.

Before any of the assembled people could start to protest, Percy groaned out loud.

"Pollo?" He squinted at the singer.

Then he smiled. Oh God! Tony thought. They really are a couple. He's never seen Percy look at anyone like that before. And the way Apollo was looking back at him, all soft and caring. His heart was mush. But Apollo was married. How would he feel if Pepper was cheating on him?

He cleared his throat.

The two seemed to snap out of their world.

Apollo grabbed the food that Dr. Luis had brought, a bowl of salad, and thrust it at Percy and said, "Eat." His voice smooth, low and authoritarian. Percy made a face, but sat up in bed and started eating the food.

Apollo sat down at the foot of the bed and the two seemed to be conversing using their eyes alone. Tony was very confused by the tiny shifts in expression, and was about to ask what the hell was happening, when Friday announced that he had visitors for Percy.

Again.

-

It had taken Apollo a whole ten minutes to de-escalate the tension and explain the situation to Percy's half-siblings. They were almost sure in the beginning that he was the one who had caused the issue. But by the time the other part of his conscience had reached Percy he told them what he saw and managed to keep them from flashing to Percy's side immediately.

"Perseus cannot be poisoned!" Triton bellowed. Apollo mentally groaned.

"I don't know how it happened either. But I'm a healer, and I don't lie about this stuff." He said to them, trying to somehow save the day.

"Well listen here, mister brother-in-law." Kymopoleia began. "My brother is the god of poisons. Whatever this is, it is not poison. Now tell us where he is, or I'll cut your dick off."

A wickedly sharp knife materialised in her hand. Triton seemed to look at him with pity.

Rhode though, saved the day. "Kym, you can't do that to Percy. What if they decide to consummate their marriage tonight? We don't want to cause Percy any more pain, do we?"

Kym seemed to take nearly a minute to weigh her options. Thankfully, none of them noticed Apollo blushing.

"Fine." She said. "Can we see him yet?"

Apollo breathed a sigh of relief and explained to them whatever he thought they needed to know.

It would've helped if they called off the mermen with spears, but they were Percy's family.

Ofcourse they would be overprotective.

-

"Who did you tell?" Percy turned to Apollo, eyes narrowed.

Apollo smiled sheepishly. "To be fair, I only intended to tell one person."

Percy groaned and slapped a hand to his forehead. "You do realise you are essentially getting me grounded?"

"So," Tony interrupted them. "Shall I let them in?"

"I don't have a choice do I?" Percy looked at Apollo again.

Tony was getting a little jealous. Percy was acting like the whole world revolved around Apollo. He and the team were the ones who had taken him to the med bay. Tony and Percy were friends too. Apollo wasn't special. They might've known each other for decades and maybe there is a very slim chance that they might secretly be lovers but that's not really possible is it? Percy would never be part of something like that. Especially not with a married man.

Tony needed to clear his head.

He asked Friday to let the people in.

He wondered if they were going to be secret children of famous people from that summer camp.

Apparently not.

Because the three people, a very handsome man and two very beautiful women shared varying degrees of similarity with Percy.

They were clearly his siblings, or half-siblings as they were undoubtedly his father's children by process of elimination.

The resemblance made Tony's eyes pop out. He wouldn't be surprised if Percy's father was using a cloning machine to create his children.

As soon as they entered, Percy looked resigned to his fate.

The three of them raced to his bedside poking and prodding and checking everything to make sure he was alright.

"He didn't give you any trouble?" The man, dressed immaculately in a dark blue suit asked Percy, giving a scathing look at Apollo.

Interesting, Tony thought.

"No, Tri. He was a good boy." Percy grinned. Tri (It was probably short for something) was still looking at Apollo disapprovingly.

Tony was enjoying the drama.

The doctors had long gone and the team had all retreated to stand along the walls and just watch everything unfold.

"So, what actually happened?" One of the two very beautiful women asked. This one had dark blue eyes and a soft long nose. Her long black hair was braided with what looked like pearls. She wore a soft blue summer dress.

"He was poisoned." Apollo said.

The other beautiful woman had emerald green eyes and a sharp nose, her dark hair was loose and messy in an elegant way and she wore a cobalt blue blouse and dark slacks.

She turned to glare at the Avengers.

The whole team straightened at that, immediately adopting defensive postures.

"At ease.... Avengers." The man said to them. His voice was authoritative. His speech and appearance, combined with the attitude gave him an air of royalty. Even the women seemed to be that way.

"My brother speaks highly of you and we have no reason to suspect you. He trusts you with his life and we trust his judgement. Kym is very protective of our baby brother, so kindly do not take offence."

With the way he talks, Tony thought, that guy belongs in Victorian England, or Asgard.

"Oh come on Tri, you're no fun." Kym (again it's short for something, he suspects), turns to look at him almost pleading.

"No, Kym. Remember what happened the last time you had some fun?"

"The guy deserved it. He still had nine fing-"

"Wait." Clint said suddenly, making everyone turn to him. "Baby brother!? You guys look like you're all the same age."

"Percy's the youngest in the family. So yes, he's our baby brother." The other sister said. She then turned to look at Percy, probably expecting him to object.

But, Percy and Apollo had long since tuned out of the conversation. They were now seated side by side on the bed, with Apollo force-feeding Percy the green vegetables in the salad.

"Not the broccoli. Please, 'pollo. I'll feed your horses for a week. Please not the broccoli."

Apollo looked like a menacing mom with the bowl of salad in one hand and the fork with broccoli in the other, pushing it in Percy's face. It was sickeningly cute.

"You love my horses. I'll make you do it anyway. Now be a good boy and open your mouth."

"I'll tell Arty about the hair dye."

The bowl and the broccoli retreated. Apollo looked horrified.

"You wouldn't."

"I would."

"You wouldn't."

"If you take that broccoli away I wouldn't."

"Fine."

Apollo turned to the other sister, the one with pearls in her hair, and gave the bowl and the fork to her. A silent request in his eyes. She turned to Kym though, and smiled as she said, "See, Kym. Aren't you glad I stopped you from castrating Apollo?"