so the hv (honeysuckled venus) au (which i may actually rename to something involving nectarines because theyre important to the fic) is primarily about leeluke
the premise is that luke (loukas in this au) is a god, and lee (leon) is a demigod. lee is a shepherd that lives alone on the outskirts of the city steno, and aside from divine relationships he has no family. so apollo is incredibly worried for when lee gets old because he will have no children to care for him in his elderly age
luke lives in maia's cave and is not allowed to leave because hermes is incredibly protective of him. this is because his mother may (myrto) was a beloved high priestess of apollo in corinth that he was also in love with, but accepted her vow of chastity because it was explicitly for him. apollo still took that as "having her."
enter aphrodite who meddles with hermes and has him fall in love with may. hermes then "seduces" (its mutual) may and luke results. apollo is obviously absolutely furious. this leads to may fleeing her home and duties to protect herself and the unborn child. hermes brings her to his mother's cave, a place apollo would never dare to trespass, and she has luke there and lives out the rest of her life peacefully until death
when she dies hermes is incredibly distraught and makes luke immortal in his grief. luke hates this. he can't leave the cave in the first place because hermes is incredibly paranoid about apollo hurting him, and now he has to stay locked there for eternity. hermes feels incredibly guilty, but hes not willing to change, so he brings luke extravagant things from all over greece and even other parts of the world out of guilt. (think of cheating people who give their partners gifts because they feel guilty)
luke does love most of the gifts, but he wants to leave more. maia sometimes sneaks him out when hermes is gone and they go hiking, hunting, or on small picnics. occasionally she will take him to the close towns to shop. hermes always finds out about it in the end, but he trusts his mother and she never takes luke far
cut to the beginning of the fic when lee is chasing several wandering sheep up mount kyllene and luke and maia are having another picnic. lee isnt bothering them so they dont do anything to him, but luke offers lee water and food because its hot and he is out of breath. the focus here is a nectarine that lee eats all of
cut to apollo waiting for lee and then smelling the nectarine and interrogating lee. he then uses this to pull bullshit out of his ass and argues that (based on hades and persephone) because lee ate of luke's food, they must marry and have children. his main goal is to secure lee is cared for until death, but he also sees this as a way to get back a child that should have been his.
everyone of course knows this is bullshit, hermes of course being incredibly angry, but hera agrees with it because she does not like luke and wants to tie him down so he "becomes docile." i need to figure out why she doesnt like him. regardless, in this au hera's role as queen of the gods isnt just a title. shes just as powerful as her brothers and husband (as are demeter and hestia). so people listen to her in this instance, despite it being ridiculous. hermes does what she wants because he fears what she might do to luke otherwise
then they get married. neither of them expect it or even know whats going on at first. they arent told much. this leads to luke and lee both being unfamiliar with how to interact with eachother because luke was raised isolated and is now thus completely unaware, unprepared, and unprotected of the outside world, and lee because he was alone from a very young age and never desired to change that
im sure more will formulate in my mind over time but this is what i have for now. and some of this is also just an excuse to talk about ancient greek furniture and draw luke in bright minoan dresses
