WITH: @athenarhea WHERE: nemean news tower, olympe WHEN: mid-january, a few days after the pandora article WEARING: alexander mcqueen (x)
Their panel is scheduled for the beginning of the second week of the summit and Icarus refuses to wait until they’re somewhere unfamiliar to begin preparing; perhaps a calendar invite is unnecessarily distant and formal, but Athena accepts it immediately and he breathes a sigh of relief. Their office at Nemean News is far from the first place they would ordinarily choose but it seems the safest place to be right now, firmly embedded in the veneer of professionalism that is the only thing holding them together.
It’s difficult to look at Athena when she arrives, five minutes early with a drink in each hand, but Icarus manages. Keeps managing as he forces his lips into a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes and clears a space on his crowded desk for her to put her things down. “Thanks for coming — I have a list of key points and potential questions if you’d like to go over those before we begin, and I’d like to review your notes as well.”
They feel cold to the core, shut in a freezer watching her through a glass door, but he can’t let anyone else see him the way Orpheus had seen him a few days ago. He has to be ready for two weeks of Hephaestus around every corner, needs to practice keeping themself together because sooner or later Zeus is going to summon them to his office and that is going to be pure torture; Icarus hates to use Athena as a practice run for dealing with her father but... if they aren’t ready? If Zeus manages to get under their skin?
They shove the thought as far away as it will go and reach for the coffee labeled with their name. “Thank you for this, too. I’m not sure how long we’ll be here but if we run over into lunch time I’ll get something delivered.”
