Who: Apollo and Shiri/Polyhymnia What: The Ol' Switcharoo trick Where: Apollo's place When: Backdated. Dec 1 Warnings: None. Apollo is in a good mood.
Honestly, he had been surprised that Zeus had been so...accommodating. Not to mention that he had willingly spent a substantial amount of time with Apollo. It was something to think about, to keep in mind for later. Right now, there was work to do.
Long, tedious work that required him to switch the labels on just about every bottle of booze in the house. Except the vintage wines, which would just be hidden somewhere, probably far away, with everything else. But that still left...a lot of bottles to mess with. At least his art supplies were coming in handy again...
As she left the dorms, she simply kissed Adam goodbye and told him she would be back at some point. Apollo wanted her to be a troublemaker WITH him. How could she ever resist? She had no doubt that Adam completely understood as she threw on a long deep purple wrap like a fancy thief in the night and was off.
Her bike was allowed to idle for a few seconds before she pulled her keys and dashed to the front door. Shiri was almost hopping from foot to foot as she knocked.
Apollo answered the door, one hand clutching Elvis's collar, the other on the door knob, and an exacto knife between his lips. Probably would have been smarter to drop it before answering the door, but...busy and not thinking. Oh well.
He hoped, privately, that having his most devoted sister there with him would make him feel a little better.
His most devoted sister quickly but carefully took that knife from his lips, her eyes widened at the site. “No.”
Blink. "Huh?"
No, what? He hadn't been doing anything but delicately removing labels. Which...was the whole point of her coming here. Okay, so not the whole point; he did hope to feel a little better. Being angry in shifts really took a lot out of a guy...
“No knife in mouth.” The very idea made her visibly shudder. Gods, it could go along his lips or his tongue and... she shuddered again. Just because he was a god of healing doesn't mean he should put sharp things in his mouth. But the feeling passed and she smiled now, “Sorry. Not what I expected when you opened the door.”
"Well I kinda needed both hands, and it was the safest place to put it..." Generally, Apollo didn't worry much about hurting himself. It just wasn't really a concern, since he could heal just about any injury to himself. The pain was momentary, after all, unless he used too much energy, but even then, he'd still heal faster than a mortal.
He ushered Shiri inside, and pushed the door closed as he let Elvis loose. "What did you expect when I opened the door?”
“Not you with a knife in your mouth, that is for sure.” It was like a scene from one of her nightmares. But she entered the house and handed him back the knife. “So, where do we start?”
He took it, and gestured for her to follow him into the kitchen. "Labels have to come off both sets of bottles, and then the real ones get stuck to the non-alcoholic bottles, which then get put back into their respective places," he said, leaning against the counter. "And then I pack everything else up, and find someplace to hide it that he'd never think of."
“At least you are not being passive-aggressive about this.” Because it was actually pretty active-aggressive, but it was little concern to the pale muse. She found herself a seat and took a bottle in hand to begin to peel back the label carefully. Normally, she would hate such tedious work but it was for a good cause. Trouble making and Apollo. It might as have been a creating a symphony... “Is he returning soon?”
Apollo set to work again as well.
Shrug. "Beats the hell out of me, but since he made sure everyone knew that his mission was accomplished, I have to assume that it will be soon; he didn't bother to tell me that information."
“I saw that but did not bother. I only ever pay attention if it is directed to me explicitly or I am waiting for something.” It probably made her miss a lot of family news, but then again, Shiri didn't care. The labels weren't too difficult to get off with her nimble fingers. Much less difficult than rebinding a manuscript. “Well, we will be done tonight so no matter.”
"Yeah, well, I knew exactly what it was when I saw it, so I couldn't really ignore it." Grumble. He set his now blank bottle aside, placed the label in the appropriate pile, and reached for another.
Shiri had her pile of labels as well. He looked so bitter and angry. She loved when he looked like that but she loved when he looked like anything... But the strength of his emotions! It could almost be intoxicating but no, his mood had to change. He was bitter and angry too often. Happiness was what she wanted from him. “Want to do a sing-a-long as we work?”
His first thought was something along the lines of how they weren't in kindergarten, but he scrapped that, and turned to dig through a box of supplies to find something suitable for sticking paper to glass.
"Your voice is better than mine."
Ages and maturity was not something to be brought up when you're removing labels of one set of bottles to replace in them in a grand prank of vengeance really. Shiri continued to remove labels. Maybe they could get an assembly line working between them, “I disagree. However, I would need you if we sang a song with two parts...”
"I knew you'd disagree, even though you've never heard me sing something with this voice. Believe me, it sounds like someone took sandpaper to my vocal chords..."
Okay, so that was kind of a lie, but he wanted to spare himself from the embarrassment if it did happen to be true; he hadn't heard himself sing with this particular voice yet either.
“Your voice could never sound terrible.” Shiri couldn't even imagine it. It was too foreign of a concept, but she frowned slightly at him. So lacking confidence... Her poor beloved. If only she could take his pain into herself. She would. Without question. “I could feel along your throat and determine if you can sing. I can tell things like that, not that I believe at all that you cannot.”
Chuckle. She seemed so sure, even without proof. It would be nice to be like that again; he'd always been positive that he could do anything. Heh.
"I bet you'd tell me that I could even if I couldn't just so that I might decided to do it anyway." Smirk.
Shiri smirked right back at him, some of her white hair falling in her face to frame it, “I could, but you would know if I was lying.”
"That hasn't stopped anyone yet~" He doubted that it ever would; there would always be a chance that he'd lose that ability as well. Someday.
Even if he did, Shiri had no doubt that Apollo would still be able to see through her. “I probably would not even try. Remember so many years ago, I was hiding and my sisters could not find me. I was angry at them and wanted to scare them... They brought you to the grove and you just shouted 'Are you hiding over here?' And when you actually came close to me I answered 'Yes.' Remember that?” The muse had no problem recounting the embarrassing moments of her youth to at least amuse him, “I am the same person after all. You would just ask me if I were lying and I would probably answer truthfully to it.”
Yes, he did remember that. How could he forget? Those had been much better times.
He reached across the counter and poked her to cover up the nostalgia. "Ah, but that's only if I ask you~ If I didn't, you'd have no reason to admit anything." Ha~
She offered him her hand. To hold or poke, whatever. But not for too long hopefully... They had bottles to peel after all. “I would probably be all shifty. Like a child who knows she ate all the holiday cookies.”
"Probably." He took her hand, and pulled it closer so he could place a kiss to the back of it. Then he let it go, and went back to his glue search.
Hm."Do you think this is going to work?"
Shiri blushed almost instantly and then took a breath before going back to her own work. “Of course it will. We just have to be very careful.” Pausing a moment, she looked at all the bottles. “You have the same bottles to replace. I do not see why it would not work.”
"I dunno. If the labels don't stick right he'll know instantly that something is wrong. I'm sort of looking forward to him opening everything and taking a drink just to find something...It'd be amusing." He was even putting new labels on the beer....
“We will just have to make the labels stick then.” That seemed so simple to her. What was important was to do it properly so Apollo would be amused by it. Shiri took up this cause with all new dedication. “How long do you think this will take?”
"Once we figure out how to get them on there, it shouldn't take too long. I mean, there's a lot of them, but it's nothing complicated." He glanced at her. "Why?"
Adam waiting up for her or something...
She blinked, just slightly confused, “No reason. I was just making small talk. It seemed like the logical question to continue with.”
"Oh." He finally selected an adhesive that he thought would work, and set about to testing it. He could afford a few mistakes; D would probably find it a little strange if he came home and everything was still in stock.
After all, Apollo was a fairly heavy drinker when he was upset.
“I just wanted to say something.” Shiri paused the peeling of the labels to carefully watch Apollo's adhesive experiment. After all, she would have to help with that part as well at some point, but her nails were making it easier for her to peel the labels. “So then you would respond.” She then blushed, “I like hearing you talk.”
Chuckle. "You like everything I do, so I don't know why you're embarrassed to say it; it isn't as if I didn't already know." Carefully, he painted the glue to the back of one of the labels, waited a few moments, and then pressed it onto the bottle.
Hmm.
The muse giggled softly as she stood up to move behind Apollo's shoulder to look at his handy work. “I get all embarrassed because whenever I confess something like that I am also reminded about how hot you are.” She reached over to be able to see the bottle at her angle. “That looks really good. You just called me here because I have nails to get the labels off. Otherwise, you would not need me at all.”
He twisted around to give her a shocked look. "I would never call you over here just because of that..." Not that it didn't help. He turned and held the bottle up to get a better look.
"That's really not...why I asked you to come, you know..."
Don't just kiss him. Don't just kiss him. Shiri took a breath and put the instinct back deep down inside of her to be able to act with some self control. She still reached out and stroked his hair softly, “I am joking, [Most Beloved]. I would hope you wanted me around for more than just my nails.”
He rested his arms on the table, and held the bottle in both hands as he waited for the glue to dry.
"Things were going so well for awhile there. I knew it was too good to last. He's going to come back here and act like nothing is wrong, and make me feel like an idiot for being pissed about the whole thing." He shook his head. "I knew if I called you, no matter what I wanted or what you were doing, you'd come today, and that, at least for a little while, I'd feel better..."
Be still her heart. It was pounding in her chest so hard now at his words. Apollo knew how she felt about him and would call her when he needed her? She made him feel better? Gods... She was a simple muse to please sometimes. Wrapping her arms around him from behind, she gave him a big hug, “You are right. I would come to you no matter what. I am so glad to know I make you feel better.”
He supposed he'd never go into any sort of detail about why things were that way; it was better to leave it as vague as possible as to avoid conflict. That sort of thing would just...ruin it. He leaned back against her, and rested his head on her shoulder. Hm~
She kept her arms around him and nuzzled his hair and the back of his head lightly with her nose, “[I love you more than even I could ever express...]”
"That's quite a feat, all things considered." Muses at a loss for adequate words? Maybe the world was coming to an end or something...
Maybe if she had her sisters' help she could do her love for Apollo justice. She kissed the side of his cheek, before, a bit reluctantly, leaving his side and returning to her seat. “But you knowing that is good enough for me.” Picking up another bottle, she sighed just a little, “We should probably finish before all I can think about is snuggling with you.”
Apollo laughed. "Oh come on now, little sister, focus! I know you can do it~" Smirk.
He set the bottle he was holding aside, satisfied with the results, and moved onto the next lable.
“Careful what you ask of me. I can focus really, really well.” She grinned back, and took another bottle to peel off the label.
He stuck his tongue out at her, and pressed the label onto the next bottle. It was...strangely relaxing to sit there and paste labels to bottles. Monotonous...
Shiri stuck her tongue right back at him, even as she began to pass him labels in a nice little line. But the muse could rarely do something monotonous like this in silence. She couldn't help but begin to hum, but at least she chose something Apollo would like.
That was better. Silence was always grating on his nerves. She had good taste too, and at least always remembered which songs he liked the best. Not to mention which ones he would have rather never been written.
It was nearly enough, he thought, to make him forget why they were sitting there doing that particular craft in the first place.
And as the particular craft continued by each bottle peeled bare and each label pasted on, Shiri watched her most beloved brother, and more importantly, her musagetes carefully. He looked happy and distracted. It made her warm inside as she was already smiling. She waited until he wasn't trying to line up another label to slip one of her feet out of her low slip on shoes and brush his leg with it under the table. And then lowered her eyes like she wasn't doing anything besides the task at hand.
"Do you really think you can fool me?" he asked, not looking up from his work; making sure there were no bubbles under the lable was hard. "There's no one else here but you; the dog is sleeping under the window." Tsk.
Shiri swallowed down her giggles and with nearly completely level voice responded, “I know not what you mean.” And this is why she couldn't lie to Apollo. She wasn't even good at joke lying.
"Sure you don't." He glanced up at her, eyebrow raised, as he set the bottle aside. "Didn't we just talk about how you're a horrible liar where I'm concerned? I think we did..." Smirk.
Now she giggled softly as she slipped back on her shoe and took up another bottle. “I guess I just wanted to try. Or I just wanted to touch you. Maybe both.”
"You know, from anyone else that would be exceedingly creepy..." Well, anyone else who wasn't a Muse. Or maybe D, but he wasn't really keen on having his brother touching him at the moment either. Pfft.
She grinned up at him as she passed over another label, letting her fingers subtly graze against his hand, “I am lucky I am not someone else then, I suppose.”
"Yeah. Saves me from having to call the cops. That's always a hassle. You really can't win if you're a guy calling them to remove a woman from your home; either you weren't man enough to do it yourself, or you get arrested for trying and resorting to violence." He stuck his tongue out at her. "Much better this way."
Shiri nodded, placing the label down and putting her hand over his. “And if you did really want me to go, you would only have to tell me.” She had been dragged out of houses by the police enough in this lifetime alone for her liking.
"Well yeah." He'd just meant that, if she were someone el-- Nevermind. He patted her hand gently. "Not that I would ever do something like that~"
She knew what she meant, but this got him to pat her. Shiri could be a cunning muse sometimes, but now she blushed again just a little at his touch. “Good. I like being here with you. Really, police would just make things ackward.”
One last pat, and then he pulled his hands away. "I know you do, now stop distracting me~ I wanna get this done. Besides, the sooner it's finished the sooner you have me all to yourself." Incentive!
Oooo, that was an incentive she could use. She nodded vigorously, almost like a child would when told they could have some cookies if they cleaned up all their toys. Carefully, but quickly, she peeled off the rest of the labels and then took some for herself to help paste them on.
He watched her for a moment, and then went back to work himself. Properly motivated Muses were excellent workers; good thing there were so few of them. Kept things from getting too out of hand. Nice.
A whole factory of them would be far too productive, for the world's market place and for poor Apollo having to properly reward their work. Shiri went back to humming, resisting the urge to whistle while she worked only because she wasn't especially good at whistling. Humming though? She was quite good at that.
Humming was good. Definitely not as ear piercing as a bad whistler. And she, of course, had good taste in music, so he didn't have to worry about her humming any horrible songs.
It also saved him from wasting time going in search of a radio. Monotony was fine, but silence was obnoxious.
Summary: Apollo decided to play a nasty trick on D for his homecoming, but it was a lot of boring work, so he called Polyhymnia to him to help him and his mood out.