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Freckles were called sun kisses in Camp Half-Blood. Percy had long vaguely known it, but only recently applied the knowledge to his life. The inhabitants of Cabin Seven were always covered in freckles, splayed over their noses and cheekbones. The other campers never had freckles.
Percy never really took stock of that, until he’d found a freckle on the inside of his wrist, right where Apollo had kissed him goodbye that morning as he took off to raise the sun. It had faded away within a couple of days, but whenever one had gone, Percy found another somewhere else on his body.
Since then, he’d found no less than a dozen, scattered in places that were almost subtle: the inside of his elbow, behind his ear, the ball of his ankle. All where Percy could recall Apollo pressing his lips, smiling up at his mortal lover.
And that was – that was lovely, actually. These freckles, tiny as they were, seemed to Percy like miniature marks of claiming. Not a bold, assertive this one’s mine, the way love bites and hickies were, the way he had thought Apollo would have marked him. He was glad; whenever he was unfortunate enough to see two campers sneak back from the woods or behind the lava wall and saw their necks littered with bruises, he always felt profoundly uncomfortable.
Not these freckles, though. They were quiet, whispering I’m here every time he subconsciously brought a hand to them.
The first time another camper had spotted one of his freckles, Percy nearly died of embarrassment. Will had stared for a second, then turned bright red while trying and failing not to smirk. Percy had avoided Cabin Seven since then.
It took a further two weeks of Percy seeking out these little signs from his lover before he confronted him about it.
Apollo stared at him, blushing heavily with gold. Percy stared up at where he was hovering above him, knees either side of Percy’s waist. ‘I’m sorry – I can’t seem to help it.’ Apollo stared bashfully down at the demigod, the fire in their bellies cooled for the time being.
Percy brought his hand up to cradle Apollo’s cheek. ‘Don’t be; I like them. I just wondered if you were doing them on purpose. If you know – well, of course you know-’
Apollo cut him off, leaning down to brush his lips against Percy’s. ‘I know. I’m glad you like them. I like them too.’ They both stared at Percy’s hand held between them, a freckle, pale for its prominent position, on clear display on the skin of the soft part of his hand between his thumb and fingers.
Gathering his bravado, Percy grinned playfully up at Apollo. ‘If you want, you could make more than one at a time.’
Interest and excitement flared deep in the god’s eyes, and he leaned forward to mouth at the shell of Percy’s ear. ‘Is that so?’ He asked, lipping at the sensitive cartilage.
Percy squirmed and laughed. ‘Yes, it is, so get to it.’
Drawing back, Apollo met Percy’s gaze with his own, rapidly darkening one. ‘Your wish.’ He murmured, elegantly swinging his leg off Percy and backing off the bed entirely. Percy’s mouth watered at the sight of his naked partner, a soft glow emitting off him. Percy had delighted in finding that the Sun God took on the colours of his dawns and dusks – tonight was a particularly picturesque evening, with pink dashing through the sky, sparse clouds drenched a majestic purple.
Before he could entice his lover to return to his bed, Apollo stepped up to the footboard and lifted Percy’s leg by the ankle. From this angle, every part of him was on display to the god, and he couldn’t keep his blush away. Apollo didn’t seem to mind his shyness, if the hooded gaze was any indication.
He leant over and pressed his lips directly over the place of Percy’s last freckle, shutting his eyes as he smiled against the thin skin. Trembling where he was held immobile, suspended for the god, Percy watched eagerly as Apollo withdrew, leaving a perfect, dark freckle, stark on his skin.
Smiling with a pleasure that turned ancient, Apollo leant forwards again and pressed his mouth directly above the mark, placing a series of butterfly kisses all around his ankle. Freckles bloomed where Apollo’s lips met Percy, and the latter could barely contain his shudder of delight.
Placing that leg down gently on the mattress, Apollo gave the same treatment to Percy’s other foot, tenderly nipping the papery skin over the bone as he left his work. Crawling up the bed, Apollo alternated between Percy’s legs, dropping his mouth briefly in some places, lingering in others. He placed mirroring freckles on Percy’s hipbones, bypassing his hard cock entirely.
Hands were stroking Percy now, fluttering against his thighs and ribs as Apollo laved his way along the curve of his rib cage, ending with three kisses making a perfect triangle over his heart. Continuing up to Percy’s collarbones, the god hummed his pleasure as he licked along the sharp bones, pausing briefly to press a kiss into the hollow of Percy’s throat. Sitting back over Percy’s thighs, still avoiding his leaking hardness, Apollo surveyed his masterpiece with heavy-lidded eyes as Percy panted up at him, half blissed out from the devotion Apollo lavished upon him.
Apollo ran his lips down the entire length of Percy’s right arm, ending in four soft kisses placed at the knuckle of each finger. Percy shivered beneath him, feeling the placement of each freckle like a point of warmth upon his body. Closing his eyes, Percy trembled under the careful hands of his lover, focussing on those points of warmth that drove him out of his mind.
Slowly, the realisation washed over him that Apollo wasn’t placing random kisses, but was dotting a thousand tiny patterns, all across his body. An arc following his rib cage, the rings around his ankles, the five-point star Apollo had lovingly whispered over his shoulder… as Apollo sweetly rolled him onto his front, drawing a hand down his chest as he did so, Percy basked in the snippets of love his partner was hiding all over him. Apollo settled over him this time, pressing close from foot to shoulders, and he painted a perfect, geometric circle of stars on the first knob of Percy’s spine. His arousal, no less eager than Percy’s, pushed against his arse, slipping between the cheeks to rub up against his hole.
Groaning low in his throat, Percy lifted back against the immortal, seeking friction, but the god simply rode out the demigod’s movements until he settled again. ‘My love.’ Apollo murmured, repeating it again and again with every touch of his mouth. ‘My love.’
Percy groaned as Apollo reached around his abdomen to brush the warm pads of his fingers delicately over his nipples. Behind him, Apollo pushed his nose into Percy’s dark hair, humming at a frequency that somehow had Percy hardening further, blood thrumming through his body.
Hovering over Percy’s back, Apollo pressed one hand over Percy’s heart, pressing in slightly to feel the heady thumping. Panting with lust, Percy turned his head to the side so he could gaze, eyelids heavy with a sleepy kind of hunger, at the shadows they threw on his wall.
Flat out on the bed, with the duvet bunched up under him, the demigod was distinguishable mostly as an expanse of smooth, sloping back and a tufted head of hair. Above him, however, Apollo’s shadow was as clear-cut as a painting, silhouetted on the white, blank wall. An arm moved leisurely over Percy’s neck, and he sighed in pleasure as a hand settled into his hair – not pulling, but tugging and twisting strands delicately. The ghostly feeling sent a shiver up his spine and pooled in the base of his skull, making every sensation infinitely more intense.
The silhouette of Apollo’s broad chest and shoulders was in sharp relief against the wall, his thick thighs and the generous curve of his arse tantalising as they arched over Percy’s prone form. His face was brushing against the small of Percy’s back as he shivered under the sensation of a tongue laving over a swathe of skin, followed by tiny pecks of his mouth against the rapidly cooling skin.
Soon it became too much for Percy and he reared back, jostling the god into plastering himself across his back. Apollo whined in his throat and ground his hips into the man beneath him, reaching one hand down to palm at his lover’s erection.
Percy let his limbs turn to mush, trusting Apollo to make it good for him. The god obliged, each gentle, long thrust he made against his arse pushing his own cock into Apollo’s grasp. Twisting his hand slightly, Apollo ran his thumb along the vein on the underside of Percy’s cock, following up to swipe across the head to gather the pre-come beading at the top. He slicked up Percy’s hardness with each lazy stroke, and Percy gasped as he felt the slow rubbing turn smooth and slick.
‘Apollo…’ Percy mumbled, reaching a hand behind him to take a handful of his arse. The god laughed, pushing back into his hand and rearranging himself so the next time he thrust against Percy’s body, his cock slipped between the demigod’s arse cheeks and Percy closed his eyes in ecstasy.
He had been surprised, the first time Apollo took him to bed. The god had seemed to be… energetic, to say the least, and Percy had pegged him as the kind of person/god to have enthusiastic, perhaps even rough – but definitely kinky – sex. Instead, Percy had been slowly undressed, and caressed, and kissed into oblivion. He hadn’t even tried to penetrate the mortal, instead watching with glowing, delighted eyes as Percy fell apart under his careful ministrations.
Even after the first time, the second, the fifth, Apollo had not changed gears with his approach, choosing to lavish Percy with physical attention. Percy had considered talking to him about it, but chickened out at the last minute, instead deciding to take charge of their night. Apollo hadn’t questioned him, only laid back and moaned as Percy treated him the same as Apollo had the earlier occasions.
Percy had grown bold, and had taken the god into his mouth, relishing in the surprised whimper the sun god released. When Apollo came, Percy backed off and spat it out, feeling a little ashamed. Apollo didn’t even seem to notice, however, as he pulled Percy up the bed and swallowed him whole. Percy had come embarrassingly quickly, but Apollo had only pulled off and dragged him into his arms, eyes unfocused and gleaming in satisfaction.
After that night, Percy did talk to Apollo. Butterflies swarmed in his guts, and he was very ready to call Apollo out on his bullshit if he tried to pass it off as something inane like not wanting to rush Percy in a gay relationship – he knew Percy was comfortable with being with men, he’d been in a reasonably long-term relationship with a son of Hecate before Apollo.
Instead, Apollo had peered at him curiously and told Percy how it was something he loved: learning slowly, thoroughly, never mind how experienced either of them might be. He had had the good grace to clear his throat as he said that bit, well aware that he had over four and a half millennia on the demigod for sexual exploration.
It’s like being alive, but immortal, Apollo had tried to explain. There’s no urgency, but there’s vulnerability. I like going slow – relishing every experience. The way he had enunciated relishing had sent a tremor down Percy’s spine then, and did so again now.
He was close, as was Apollo, he could feel it in the undulation of the god’s torso against his back. It had taken a while, but Percy now understood where Apollo was coming from when he had told him that, all those months ago. Since then, they had explored and tested each other, taking time to enjoy the anticipation.
The first time Apollo had taken Percy, Percy had been on his back on Apollo’s grand bed in the Sun Palace. Not for long, as Apollo had moaned and pulled him up against his chest, one hand supporting his head as Apollo rocked his hips into Percy, whispering sweet nothings into his hair as he pushed against Percy’s prostate until he came, clenching around the god, with a drawn-out groan.
The first time Percy had taken Apollo, Apollo had been on his knees and forearms, face turned to the side on Percy’s cheap pillow, with eyes already half-lidded in satiation, even as Percy pushed in for the first time. They didn’t do it every time, one inside the other, although they did usually. This time, Apollo seemed happy to continue with this gentle push and pull, tugging Percy back every so often harder against his cock.
Percy’s orgasm crept up on him, then flooded him in a rush as he choked off a surprised moan and shuddered in Apollo’s grip. Apollo stroked him through the pleasure, then drew back and jerked himself off, hot come streaking across Percy’s back as the god above him sighed in his release. Percy could feel the weight of Apollo’s gaze as he rubbed the demigod’s hip, drinking in the sight before him.
With a slight groan, Apollo vanished the sticky remains of their mutual pleasure and curled up around his lover, nibbling at Percy’s ear, chuckling at the squirming that produced, and intertwined their fingers – a ridiculously sappy gesture that Apollo had done the first time they slept together and every time since. Percy had been beyond amused (and secretly a little bit delighted) at the romantic notion and had immediately mercilessly teased the god. The initial effect was probably lost somewhat due to the slurred tone of Percy’s speech, but Apollo had obligingly pouted until Percy kissed the disgruntled expression off the god’s face.
‘Wake me up before you leave.’ Percy mumbled to Apollo, pushing further into the god’s embrace. Apollo squeezed his fingers twice and brushed another kiss to the nape of Percy’s neck. Apollo would be off to rise the sun the next day, but in the depth of winter in New York, that meant a nice little lie-in, toasty in the arms of his lover.
As Percy drifted off to sleep, he mused at the freckles dotted on his skin before his eyes. There were four on his knuckles, and a fifth on the base of his ring finger. Eyes closing, mind falling rapidly into slumber, Percy couldn’t help the smile that tugged on his lips.
That little freckle, Percy thought. That one’s my favourite.