“I’m bored,” Jaehwan says, twirling one of his thunderbolts idly in one hand and not caring much if it slips through his fingers and decimates a village or two down on earth.

“You’re always bored,” Wonsik answers unsympathetically. “Go start a war somewhere or something.”

“I did that last week,” Jaehwan complains. “There’s just so many wars I can keep up with at one time, you know, and most of the current heroes are still fighting in Troy anyway. Ten years later and things are developing depressingly slowly.”

“Your girl Helen seems to be amusing herself well enough with it. Kings fighting over her and all,” Wonsik hums, distracted as he peers down through the clouds. Jaehwan rolls his eyes.

“Can’t you not spy on Hongbin for even one day?” Jaehwan needles him. “I called you up to Olympus to hang out and entertain me, not make googly eyes at him frolicking through flower fields or something.”

“He is not frolicking through a flower field,” Wonsik answers with some dignity. “Anyway, I miss him. Fates forbid you ever be in love like this, huh?”

“Love?” Jaehwan scoffs. “No time for that. Too many gorgeous mortals, nymphs, goddesses, gods-”

“Spare me,” Wonsik begs. “Though I do wonder how the Hades one makes love as a shower of gold coins. Or as a swan. Or an ant.”

“Did you just make a pun on your own name,” Jaehwan narrows his eyes. “And if you’re going to make fun of me then you can go on back to the underworld and mope by yourself until the lovely Hongbin comes back to you. I’m going down to amuse myself on earth.”

“Hide your kids, hide your wife, hide your husband,” Wonsik mutters under his breath, and disappears.

Jaehwan glares at the spot where his brother was a second ago, and then disappears himself. He reappears in Troy where all the hottest action is currently, disguised as a common soldier to walk among the men encamped on the beach along the walls of the kingdom; still shut out like waves breaking against the sea cliffs. Jaehwan roams through the tents and the camps, enjoying the mortal noise and bustle and filth and life until he comes upon an innocuous old healer sitting by the main royal tent of Agamemnon. Jaehwan walks up to him casually, pretending to survey the human soldiers with interest until the healer notices him.

“Come to cause trouble?” Apollo murmurs.

“Not as much as you,” Jaehwan replies, grinning down at him quickly. “Fantastic cover, I might say.”

“Likewise,” Apollo smiles, looking away. “I saw something on Mount Ida I think you’ll find… diverting.”

“Oh?” Jaehwan raises an eyebrow. “My type?”

“If by that you mean ‘beautiful’, then yes,” Apollo rolls his eyes. “I really shouldn’t be enabling you like this.”

Jaehwan hums in delight, clapping a hand on his son’s shoulder. “You’re a true merit to this family. Unlike unhelpful uncooperative brothers whose name rhymes with ‘’.”

Apollo shakes his head as Jaehwan disappears once more, unremarked by the mortals rushing about them because not seeing someone disappear is much easier than seeing it and humans are marvellously adaptable creatures. If it doesn’t make sense, it didn’t happen.

Mount Ida is rather barren – no lush copses of trees for most of its grass-covered peak except for a small shady grove almost to the edge of the cliff. Jaehwan is nonplussed. Apollo isn’t usually one for practical jokes but there’s nothing here except grazing sheep; Jaehwan isn’t bored enough for that, and hopes he never will be.

He’s ready to go back and give Apollo what-for when someone emerges from the grove of trees – coming round from the other side of the peak previously hidden from Jaehwan’s view, and when he comes close enough for Jaehwan to be able to see him properly Jaehwan almost begins to purr.

Apollo had said he was beautiful – Apollo has never made a worse understatement in his life. Tall, strong limbs, sensuous mouth and bedroom eyes far too stunning to belong to a simple shepherd; his bone structure alone would better befit a prince of the land than a mere commoner. Beauty truly is a mystery, Jaehwan thinks admiringly to himself, and now he’s going to get some.

Changing into a magnificent eagle, much too large to be of the natural world, Jaehwan swoops exultantly into the air, feeling the sun warm his wings and thrill his blood; and down like an arrow towards the boy, the boy’s hounds beginning to bark in alarmed warning. The boy looks up too late – Jaehwan grabs him by the shoulders and lifts him away up into the clouds, the boy crying out and struggling desperately the entire way, though his actions are dulled by shock and pragmatic fear once they get too high – if Jaehwan drops him it would mean his death.

Jaehwan deposits him gently on the ground before the great entrance to the Hall of Gods and transforms once again into himself, chief of all Olympians and the Allfather – sunlight in his hair and eyes, glowing with sheer immortal omnipotence and virility, and smugly waits for the boy to be dazzled.

“What the ,” the boy spits, glaring as if looks could kill. “I demand you put me back right now. Kidnapping is illegal.”

Jaehwan blinks. “Boy, do you know who I am?”

“I don’t give a single flying . Take me home.”

Jaehwan bristles, heavenly godlight blazing intensely. “I am Zeus, king of the gods.”

“So?” The boy gets to his feet, insolent provocation in his eyes. “Big ing deal.”

“It would behove you to watch your language around me,” Jaehwan splutters.

“This-” the boy gestures to Jaehwan’s general magnificence, “isn’t going to work on me. How easy do you think I am?”

Jaehwan is speechless. This mortal is clearly mad – maybe he has rabies – or his beauty has driven him to become dangerously arrogant. Rejectinghim!

“Any other mortal would kill to be in your shoes,” Jaehwan sneers, though secretly rather charmed by the boy’s impudence. Of all things, Jaehwan loves a challenge, and the way the boy’s eyes are flashing with anger is truly a sight to behold. Jaehwan sighs internally. He’s so damn predictablesometimes.

“Oh, really? And what shoes are those?”

“I will make you cupbearer to the gods,” Jaehwan smiles winningly. “Your exquisite beauty warrants it; the sun itself will vie with you for dominance when it is in the sky. And at night-”

“Hah, I know what’s going to happen at night!”

Jaehwan shuts his mouth in consternation. “What’s your name, boy?”

“Sanghyuk,” the boy lifts his chin defiantly. “And I’m not some prize to be had by snatching me away. You want me, you work for it.”

“Sanghyuk,” Jaehwan begins with an immense effort of patience. “I don’t think you understand the situation here. I’m offering you my personal favour and attention-”

“And I’m offering you the chance to do things properly. You should be ashamed of yourself, carting innocent people off without even a by-your-leave, thinks he’s chief of the gods so he can do whatever he wants-”

Jaehwan can feel a headache coming on, so he makes up his mind quickly. A whoosh of wings and Sanghyuk is airborne and earthbound once more.

*

“I don’t believe you,” Assaracus says, laughing, splashing water at Sanghyuk in derision. “You honestly expect me to think Zeus is interested in you? At least use one of the lesser gods’ names to make your lie more convincing.”

“Don’t be an ,” Sanghyuk replies mildly, sending Ilus off into giggles. Assaracus rolls his eyes, used to this jab, and turns to float on his back; the brisk water of the lake against his skin soothing in the insistent heat of the afternoon. “Don’t believe me if you want. I’m telling the truth.”

“How could you reject him, brother?” Ilus asks with wide eyes, youngest and sweetly innocent. “What if he gets offended and takes revenge?”

“I’ll go to Hera’s oracle and tell her everything,” Sanghyuk says coolly, letting Ilus cling to his back as he lazily swims following the floating Assaracus, Ilus enjoying the Sanghyuk-boat ride.

“That’s probably him over there,” Assaracus points out sarcastically, gesturing towards a large white swan swimming leisurely not too far away. “Just waiting for his chance to have his wicked way with you.”

Sanghyuk huffs at his older brother’s mocking, but the swan gives him pause anyway; he narrows his eyes at it as he steadily watches it swim slowly closer in ever-widening circles. It’s been there ever since they began their swim, about half an hour ago, hovering just beyond their notice.Who ever heard of a lone swan that likes human company?

“But how can a swan and a human-” Ilus is asking Assaracus in intense curiosity, Assaracus awkwardly waving him away, as Sanghyuk stares at the swan. It’s abnormally big, for a swan – and almost shining white in the way most swans aren’t; the pure creamy white of its perfect feathers seeming more like the idea of a swan than what real swans actually look like.

Sanghyuk scoffs in incredulous amusement and gently disengages Ilus’ arms from around his neck so that the boy slides off into the water, immediately paddling towards Assaracus to barnacle-cling to him instead. Sanghyuk swims back to the shore, watching the swan out of the corner of his eye.

The swan casually – casually! – begins to follow him, and Sanghyuk has to stop himself from laughing out loud.

He comes out of the lake, water dripping down his body, and makes a show of running his hands through his hair and over himself to get a little bit drier, letting the swan see him from all angles before turning to it and deliberately putting on his chiton.

“I’m not into ,” Sanghyuk calls out to it, grinning. “Try harder next time.”

He walks off after a shout to his brothers that he’s heading back to the farm, and the swan disgruntledly climbs onto the bank. One moment it’s a large, beautiful swan, and the next moment it’s a grumpy, pouting god.

Jaehwan frustratedly shakes off the droplets of water still clinging to him and ignores the two brothers still in the lake staring at him with their jaws dropped.

Strategy one, fail.

*

“Hey, babe.”

Sanghyuk stops in his tracks as he goes to take his sheep out for their morning graze, barely a step away from the front door of his humble house halfway down the mountain. In front of him, before the paddock where his sheep are corralled, is Jaehwan leaning smugly against an open trunk filled to the bursting brim with gold.

One lonely sheep bleats, long and mournful.

Sanghyuk stares at the gold and then at Jaehwan practically glowing in his robes of pure white and the godlight kissing his skin and hair, looking as incongruous against the backdrop of Sanghyuk’s scraggy sheep as a wedding dress at a funeral.

“Are you here to add insult to injury this time?” Sanghyuk raises a dangerous eyebrow.

“What?” Jaehwan asks, aggrieved, all superior attitude abruptly gone like someone had flipped a switch. “What have I done wrong now?”

“Are you actually trying to buy me?”

“…No,” Jaehwan answers, mind racing, “but-”

“With only one trunk of gold?”

Jaehwan narrows his eyes as Sanghyuk begins to smile, deceptively angelic. “Surely I’m worth at least five.”

“Ten,” a voice chirps up from behind Sanghyuk, and Assaracus gets yanked back into the house by an unseen pair of hands as Sanghyuk turns around to glare.

Sanghyuk turns around and continues his walk down past Jaehwan to the paddock, not dropping eye contact, and lets the sheep out one by one before following the last one as it plods up the hill. He doesn’t look back, as if he knows Jaehwan is watching him go.

Jaehwan finds himself grinning irrepressibly. The boy certainly knows how to play.

Fine. Let’s play.

*

“Sanghyuk,” his father says uncertainly, looking out the window. “Sanghyuk, you have to come and see this.”

“Is it a man standing outside with trunks of gold?” Sanghyuk asks, bored, as he dips his bread into clear honey. “He can wait until I’m done with breakfast. It’s Ilus’ and ’ turns to be out with the sheep and I want to take it easy for a bit.”

Sanghyuk’s father gives him an incredulous look. “Son, I know this sounds ridiculous but he looks like, like the temple portraits of-”

“Zeus?” Sanghyuk pipes up. “Yeah, he gets that all the time.”

“Of course, it’s not actually – I must be crazy to think – but, Sanghyuk-”

“What, father?” Sanghyuk says around the last mouthful of bread in his mouth.

“If he’s not Zeus,” the middle-aged man says weakly, “what’s he doing with a winged horse?”

Sanghyuk swallows quickly and bursts out of his chair to join his father at the window, and promptly gasps so hard he nearly chokes. “Oh, my gods.”

“How do you know this man?” Sanghyuk’s father calls after him in alarm as Sanghyuk rushes out the front door, slowing down only on purpose when he sees the look of triumph on Jaehwan’s face astride the breathtaking winged stallion.

“Knew this would get your attention,” Jaehwan smirks.

Sanghyuk chooses to ignore this and drinks the pure white horse in from nose to haunches, stunning wingspan and all. “Is this-”

Jaehwan raises an eyebrow at him, in mocking remembrance of Sanghyuk’s own haughtiness of the day before. “Is this what?”

“Pegasus,” Sanghyuk manages to say.

“Oh, yes,” Jaehwan says lightly, and the look of wonder on Sanghyuk’s face for a moment blinds the sun.

Jaehwan holds out a hand to Sanghyuk and waits, Sanghyuk staring up at him, loathe to give in but enthralled by the chance to actually ride the famed Pegasus – half-deity in its own right, part of legends and myths not a single child in the land did not know.

“This still doesn’t mean I accept your offer,” Sanghyuk declares finally, taking Jaehwan’s hand and allowing himself to be helped up onto Pegasus behind Jaehwan.

“Yet,” Jaehwan finishes for him. “Hold on to me tight. He goes fast.”

Sanghyuk wraps his arms around Jaehwan’s waist, sitting so close he can feel Jaehwan from shoulder to hip. “This tight?” he whispers in Jaehwan’s ear, mischief spilling over.

“Your hands are welcome to go lower,” Jaehwan answers, and whatever reply Sanghyuk had ready is whisked away on the wind as Pegasus takes off running at a breathtaking speed, gorgeous wings outstretched and gathering momentum to leap into the air. Sanghyuk cannot help but hold Jaehwan tighter – he wasn’t lying about Pegasus going fast, and only once they’re off the ground in a stomach-swooping jump off the side of the mountain does Sanghyuk realise Jaehwan has one firmly reassuring hand on his thigh – either for comfort or to make sure he doesn’t slip off Pegasus’ back, but Jaehwan’s long elegant fingers spread out on Sanghyuk’s bare skin look and feel good.

They’re flying.

Sanghyuk can’t even speak – he’s captivated by sheer wonder. The sparkling sea below them, hills and mountains behind them, only clouds above them – they fly for hours, over villages and palaces and islands and deserts and rivers, Pegasus untiring and Sanghyuk hungry, greedy for more.

Jaehwan nudges Pegasus and the horse banks into a roll – Sanghyuk bites off a yell as they barrel through the sky, going so fast that Sanghyuk never has a chance to fall off but wholeheartedly embraces the chance to be terrified. Jaehwan is shouting with laughter and glee, both at the death grip Sanghyuk has on him as well as the sheer joy of the daredevil stunt – Sanghyuk dazedly wonders if Jaehwan has forgotten that Sanghyuk can very well fall off and die – Jaehwan turns back to him with shining eyes and Sanghyuk hits him in protest.

They don’t talk – but Jaehwan’s back is solid and secure against Sanghyuk, and when they finally turn back for home Sanghyuk’s heart sinks.

Jaehwan touches them down at the very top of Mount Ida, just in time to see the sun go down into the sea and paint the world in streaks of glorious pink and orange.

“Tomorrow we can go to see the sirens,” Jaehwan tells Sanghyuk over his shoulder. “Or the ice giants in the north.”

“I want to meet Hermes,” Sanghyuk murmurs, aware that he doesn’t need to still be holding Jaehwan, and aware that Jaehwan knows it too. “I’m kind of a fan.”

“Why him when you’ve got me?” Jaehwan scoffs. “I’m infinitely more interesting. And better looking.” Sanghyuk smiles.

“Not everything is a competition,” Sanghyuk tells him sternly, and Jaehwan twists around to look at Sanghyuk in the eye.

“Isn’t it?”

Sanghyuk raises an eyebrow in challenge and Jaehwan matches it.

Pegasus begins to walk down the mountain path as twilight falls, the wind blowing cool and ruffling their hair and chitons. Sanghyuk contemplates Jaehwan’s nape for a moment and bends forward slightly, inhaling deeply. Jaehwan smells like – Sanghyuk can’t describe it, but he smells like how Sanghyuk would imagine stars to smell. Cold, fresh, bright.

Jaehwan is tracing one finger lightly over Sanghyuk’s hands clasped around his waist, following a path down each finger and over the soft skin of his wrists – just one gentle finger that’s raising goosebumps up and down Sanghyuk’s arms. Sanghyuk wonders if Jaehwan can tell.

Jaehwan helps Sanghyuk down from Pegasus’ back once they reach Sanghyuk’s home – the fire inside glowing through the windows and casting shadows over both their faces.

“Tomorrow I’ll bring you to meet Hermes if that’s what you really want,” Jaehwan tells him, acting put-upon. “You can come see the palace, see what you think. Pick out the furniture and bedsheets for your rooms,” Jaehwan grins. “Though, admittedly… you won’t be spending much time in your own bed.”

Sanghyuk has to burst out in a laugh – Jaehwan is so ridiculous he can’t help it – when he feels Jaehwan’s fingers on his chin, turning his face back towards Jaehwan.

“One kiss,” Jaehwan says softly. “One kiss for one fine day spent together.”

Sanghyuk looks at him – this is Jaehwan’s Seduction Voice and his Seduction Face, he can tell, but Sanghyuk also can see why it’s worked so well so far. When Jaehwan looks at you this way it’s like you’re the only one he sees and you are the most desirable, the most perfect thing he’s ever seen.

“And when you get tired of me?” Sanghyuk whispers.

“That will never happen, beautiful Sanghyuk,” Jaehwan runs his thumb over Sanghyuk’s bottom lip. “Nobody could.”

“Sweet words,” Sanghyuk dismisses, and Jaehwan smiles.

“I will put you in the sky with the stars,” Jaehwan tells him. “Every time someone looks up at the night sky they will see you. Every honour I can give you, I will – immortality, the favour of Olympus-”

Jaehwan cups Sanghyuk’s face and kisses him, searing, yearning, deep, skin thrilling with the excitement of being held close. “Be with me, Sanghyuk.”

Sanghyuk slowly opens his eyes and nuzzles Jaehwan’s cheek, dropping tiny kisses down his jaw. “Great Zeus,” he whispers, “how easy do you think I am?”

Jaehwan pulls back to glare unimpressed at Sanghyuk who’s cracking up; the longer Jaehwan scowls at him the funnier it gets until Sanghyuk is doing everything but rolling on the ground in laughter.

“Oh, you should see your face,” Sanghyuk wheezes. “You’re really not used to not getting what you want immediately, are you?”

“I’m starting to think you’re not worth the effort,” Jaehwan sniffs, which makes Sanghyuk laugh harder.

“You’ve hardly put in any effort at all. What happened to ‘every honour I can give you, I will’?”

“I take it back,” Jaehwan retorts.

Sanghyuk beams, and it’s he who initiates the kiss this time. Shorter, passionate, captivating – Jaehwan has to hold on to his heart and when Sanghyuk pulls away he smiles, and Jaehwan finds himself smiling too.

“See you tomorrow, then,” Sanghyuk tells him, turning away to go back inside his house. “You might want to remember that I need to eat, by the way. You didn’t think about feeding me at all today.”

“Only the best for you,” Jaehwan promises, only slightly sarcastically.

“Better be,” Sanghyuk throws over his shoulder, grinning. “This is your new cupbearer you’re talking to.”