au yeah autumn challenge

[sunrises]

Soulmates - Riku / Namine (Kingdom Hearts)
College - Lloyd Irving / Colette Brunel
Single parent - Tyler Lockwood / Caroline Forbes
Enemy - Ochaco Uraraka / Izuku Midoriya
Laundromat - Peyton Leverett / Maxine Hunkel
Hogwarts - Stefan Salvatore / Misty Day
Famous - Tom Bronson / Sharpay Evans
Kwami swap (Power Swap) - Yato / Hiyori Iki
Summer Camp - Evan Tildrum / Tani (Ni No Kuni II)
Secret agent - Izuku Midoriya + Bakugou Katsuki
Mermaid - Senel Coolidge / Shirley Fennes
Royalty - Stefan Salvatore / Jesse Wells
Fake dating - Stefan Salvatore / Freya Mikaelson
Reincarnation - Jason Grace / Piper McLean
Life Swap - Stefan Salvatore + Eugene Woods
Neighbors - Roxas / Olette (Kingdom Hearts)
Sidekick - Iris West + Ashley Williams
Circus - Shizuku Mizutani / Haru Yoshida
Reverse Crush - Katsuki Bakugou (MHA) / Leila (Riordan-verse)
Coffee shop - Ryuji Sakamato / Makoto Niijima
Childhood Friends - Stefan Salvatore / Elena Gilbert
Crime - Tenko Midoriya + Hana Midoriya + Izuku Midoriya
Historical - Barry Allen / Iris West
Office / workplace - Sebastian Debeste / Kay Faraday
Friends with Benefits - Goro Akechi / Haru Okumura
bff swap - Sean Diaz / Ally Parker
Internet - Masayuki Hori / Yuu Kashima
Gym - Eijiro Kirishima / Katsuki Bakugou
Time travel - Max Carson / Lester Papadopoulos
Roommates - Jeremy Gilbert / Kol Mikaelson
"Dealer's Choice" - Roland Crane + Evan Tildrum

PROGRESS: 31/31

Comments

time travel - Lester Papadopoulos / Max Carson | wordcount: 957

[sunrises]

Boy, Max had screwed up this time.

He wasn't sure what he had been aiming for, let alone what Futaba Sakura had been aiming for with that new portal - easier access to government housing? Less travel time from one end of the city to the other? Some nebulous combination of the two? Whatever it was, she hadn't succeeded.

He would know, judging from the stark white pillars that greeted him, and the gaggle of young women giggling at him and his clothes. Despite their tall stances, they all coiled their hair into tight buns, and they wore white togas emblazoned with arrow badges. Their sandals were woven around their ankles, and they - they were some kind of team.

Yet they gave way to a young man, dressed in a one-armed toga and the same sandals. The sun's light dimmed in his presence (or maybe he was dimming the sun?), and the entire Earth seemed to bend with him as he knelt to see Max.

"Your time hasn't come yet," he murmured, in a language that only they could understand.

Max sat up, staring at the young man's face and trying to figure out just where he had seen those chiseled features before, along with that mess of blond hair and bright blue eyes and –

"Apollo?"

"That's Lord Apollo to you," one of the young women yelled back at him, only for the young man (Apollo? Lord Apollo?) to wave her off.

"He can call me what he wants," he yelled back at them, before speaking back at Max, "But you need to get back to your world. It isn't safe here."

Without a second word, Apollo's fingers intertwined with Max's, and as Max pulled away, his energy conflicted with the rays of Apollo's light. The world - and everything in his line of sight - rippled into a purple pulse of energy.



The movies got one thing wrong: tripping through time wasn't like passing through a door. It was like watching reality warp around you, shifting like grains of sand into something completely unrecognizable. Empires rose and fell around him; horse-drawn carriages shifted into sedans and mini-SUVs; and even the roads darkened from dirt to paved concrete. The sky was as bright and clear as always.

Once Max oriented himself again, he drew a breath and stared at the looming skyscrapers. He couldn't place those, let alone what city he was supposed to be in. If Apollo's temple had been in front of him last time, he must've been in ancient Greece, so then this had to be...

Where, again?

"You didn't trust me," Lester's voice called from behind him.

"I'm sorry, Lesi," Max replied without thinking, turning to face his boyfriend. God, what he wouldn't give to see that smile and mess of curly hair that he could play with. "It's still - I know you're a literal god, but sometimes you gotta remember the little people."

Yet it wasn't Lester's curly hair that greeted him; rather, Apollo was grinning back at him, with a knowing smile and relaxed demeanor that spoke volumes about him - about the person that his Lesi used to be. Max hated it. That smug, cocky grin that signaled how he owned the entire world, and then some.

"Can't," Apollo said, with an air that implied he never would. "That's not a lesson for me to learn."

"Um, yeah it is." Max groaned. "You told me so yourself, that was the whole point of you becoming mortal –"

"Again, I'm not your Lesi, or your Apollo."

"Uh-huh."

Yet Max took a moment to study Apollo - really study him. Lesi had claimed that he hadn't changed much when he was mortal, and flashes of Lesi were present in this smug god. They stood the same way; they wore the same faded band t-shirts and jeans (but Apollo wore it better); and they both acted with far more confidence than they believed they had.

This apologetic expression - the real one - didn't suit Apollo. In fact, it made Max hate him even more.

"I'm serious, Maxwell." Apollo ran a hand through his hair, avoiding his gaze. "Something's going to happen to me in this world, so the Fates will summon another me, and that's the Apollo you'll come to love."

"Like Lachesis or Atropos or...?"

Apollo grimaced. "I've already said too much, but when you find him, don't let him go."

With that, he once again intertwined his hand with Max's. Max pulled his palm away, just as the world rippled again into purple energy.





The third time Max time traveled, he found himself in Lesi's empty apartment. Andy had climbed onto the balcony for a smoke break, leaving him alone with Lester's stuff.

("Don't touch a damn thing," she had warned him, and like a good former-Christian boy, Max was inclined to agree.)

It was weird, sifting through his books, his vinyl CD collection, his faded band t-shirts, his family photos (so many of them with him and Will). Yet as he touched Lesi's favorite CD - something by the Beatles - the world again rippled, and he found himself cursing at a familiar mess of curly hair.

"Whoa, Maxie," Lesi said with a laugh, peering down at him and picking up that CD. "What did the Beatles ever do to you?"

Max blinked back genuine surprise, his fingers reaching out to curl around Lesi's hair, his arms wrapping tight around his neck. If he held on, maybe he'd convince himself this was real. Lesi was here, and he was Lesi, not some stupid jerk who claimed to be the old Lesi.

"Nothing worth telling you about," he murmured into a kiss.

His fingers intertwined with Lesi's, and this time, he didn't dare let go.