Artemis pushes Apollo forward and he crosses the distance towards Ganymede, while she remains behind, watching from the doorway.
There's something about Ganymede's empty gaze that rankles Apollo, he's not used to being looked at with indifference -- at least, not by mortals.
Although, he supposes, it has been a long time since Ganymede was one.
"What do you want?" Ganymede asks, still swaying back and forth on his swing. "Surely, the God of Prophecy would know how bad of an idea this is."
Apollo stops, mere paces away from Ganymede.
He has been having visions recently, but not of his doom.
He's been seeing a pair of violet blue eyes, set between thick curling lashes, dark freckles on sun-kissed skin, as beautifully burnished as Ganymede's, and yet not his.
Maybe his visions explain his recent amorous mood.
It's not unusual for him to see flashes of something before it coalesces into a clearer vision, but at the moment there's nothing ominous in the horizon.
Ganymede probably meant to scare him into leaving, but his words only embolden Apollo to breach the final distance between them.
"I've come for a kiss," he says, pushing Ganymede softly, making him swing higher.
He can see Ganymede's shoulders drawing up around his ears. "My kisses are not mine to give."
He's right of course, but he doesn't expect Apollo to ask his father for permission, does he?
"I'll grant you one wish in exchange for one kiss," Apollo says, chancing one quick look backwards at Artemis.
She gives him an encouraging smile, bids him to go on with a careless wave.
"My kisses have a body count," Ganymede says, kicking his feet against the ground, where the gold tiling gives way to lush grass, to gain more altitude.
"Must you be so morbid?" Apollo sighs. "Father isn't here, who'll know?"
Ganymede gives him a sideways look over a bare shoulder, his green eyes flashing. "Gamble at your own peril, I'll give you your kiss, if you're so insistent."
Apollo beams, he thought it would be much harder than this.
"But you'll grant me my wish," Ganymede adds, coming to a halt on the swing.
He gets up from the swing and advances towards Apollo, moving with the feline grace of a stalking predator, at odds with the apathy in his eyes.
"What is it?"
"You'll find a way to free me," Ganymede says, as he loops a slim arm around Apollo's neck, drawing him closer to his own height. "Even if I am to die, I want to leave Olympus, forever."
Apollo has no way of doing that, but what Ganymede doesn't know can't hurt him. He can pay a visit to the realm of Hades and ask around if Ganymede insists on collecting, later on.
"Agreed," Apollo says, pulling Ganymede flush against his body by the hip, their bare legs slotting together. "I'll get you your way out, Trojan Prince."
Ganymede's eyes close of their own accord and a sigh passes through his plush lips. The prospect of death is sweeter to him than Apollo's kiss.
Apollo would take offence if he wasn't well aware of what his father's prolonged company can do to someone. Hera being the perfect testament to that.
When Ganymede's lips brush against his, Apollo is surprised by how inexperienced and halting they feel. He must not be used to kissing,
Then again, Zeus has never been known for his tenderness.
What a pity, for so much beauty to be locked away, wasting away in loneliness, only feeling the touch of greedy hands upon his skin.
It almost moves Apollo to pity.
When Ganymede's soft exhale ends their kiss, Apollo decides that he will at least make an effort to get him the freedom he wants.
"Keep your promise," Ganymede says, echoing Apollo's own thoughts.
"I'm afraid he'll be in no condition to do so," a thundering voice says, echoing through the room.
Moments later, Zeus materializes in front of them, appearing from a dark cloud. His bare feet strike the gold floor like thunderbolts, shaking it with each step.
Ganymede isn't phased by the compromising position he has been caught in.
Apollo on the other hand swallows dryly and struggles to meet his Father's eye.
Artemis rushes into the room, her sandaled feet clicking on the gold tile. "Father, this is merely a game between brother and I, please don't take it seriously."
Zeus spares her a withering scowl. "I expect this kind of foolishness from your brother, but it disappoints me coming from you."
She lowers her head, and retreats back into the shadows. If Zeus is speaking so harshly to one of his beloved daughters, things look bleak indeed for Apollo.
Zeus towers over all the other Gods, and when his massive hand closes on the back of Apollo's tunic, pulling him up like a disobedient kitten, Apollo feels as small as cowed child.
Except there's something much worse than a spanking in stock for him.
"I'm calling a council. I'll make a lesson out of you, boy."
---
Zeus sits in his gilded throne in the main hall, Ganymede standing at his right, vacant eyes looking dispassionately at the scene unfolding in front of them.
Apollo kneels in front of the dais, his head lowered in supplication.
The other Olympians materialize one after the other in the main hall, answering Zeus' summons.
Immediately the hum of whispered conversation grows among them.
Dionysus is the first to raise his voice. "What has Apollo done now?"
"Touched what didn't belong to him," Aphrodite says, her long reddish hair streaming over her shoulders and down to her hips, swaying with each step forward. "As usual."
Apollo bites back a groan. He can't believe she's still going on about the whole Adonis business.
Dionysus has probably fucked him more times than Apollo!
A thought crosses his mind: what if Aphrodite was spying on him and Artemis and told Zeus about their wager?
Nothing Apollo can do about it now.
Not with his fellow gods gathered to watch the spectacle Zeus is sure to make of his punishment.
"Apollo has laid hands upon Ganymede," Zeus says, lifting an accusing finger towards Apollo. "Moreover, he has promised to release him from the gift of immortality."
That sends an excitable chatter through the Olympians as well as the minor deities that have since joined in.
For the first time, the grip of panic seizes Ganymede's proud eyes. He's coming to understand that this might be punishment for him as well.
He seeks a pair of deep violet eyes among the crowd, a wild tangle of bronze ringlets falling down in waves down sun-kissed shoulders the color of wheat. Finds them, and holds their gaze. Reminding their owner of the drunken promises he once made, and Ganymede dismissed.
"Apollo so readily accepted to rid Ganymede of the gift I bestowed upon him, perhaps he doesn't understand the wretchedness of mortality," Zeus says, his words making the marble walls echo with the boom of his voice.
"Father, I-" Apollo starts, trying to explain himself.
He isn't sure if saying he didn't mean any of it and just wanted to kiss Ganymede so Artemis would stop gloating about Daphne preferring her over him, is going to help his case.
In any case, Zeus doesn't let him finish. "Silence! You don't know what it's like to be human, you know nothing of the humiliations they suffer, but I'm happy to teach you."
Apollo doesn't dare raise his eyes from the floor.
"From today onward you are banished to the mortal realm, and relieved of your divine gifts! You will live as a mortal among mortals until you can prove you deserve to be a God."
Artemis rushes to her brother's side, kneeling next to him, her tunic fluttering against her dark skin. "Father, please, spare my brother."
Zeus ignores her, turning to Ganymede and beckoning him over.
Ganymede approaches his throne, and Zeus lifts him onto his lap as if he weights nothing. He runs a finger under Ganymede's chin, whose only reaction is the minute fluttering of his lashes.
"As for my jewel...maybe he needs a reminder," Zeus says, his pearly white teeth shining like daggers.