I was set this challenge by a friend of mine. At first, I refused, saying that I wanted to work on my Skulduggery Pleasant stories (if anyone's familiar with the detective, I would love it if you could check them out... *hopeful smile*). Anyway, this friend was persistent and eventually I gave into her demands. Oh, and the challenge is that I have to do one fic for every letter of the alphabet, and it had to be an Apollo romance. Yeah. Anyway, this is an official disclaimer for the WHOLE fic, because I'll just forget anyway.
I do not own the Percy Jackson and The Olympians series, or any characters from it. I only own the plots.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare sat at the table of the coffee shop, watching with bored eyes as the toddler two tables down threw his apple in the air, over and over again. The apple was red and shiny with few bruises on its delicate skin. Someone had cut off the stem. It was a perfect apple, practically begging you to sink your teeth into its sweet, crunchy flesh.
The toddler, however, had no intention of eating the apple. He was content with just throwing it, again and again in the air, much to Rachel's (and the child's mothers) annoyance. Just eat it already! Rachel screamed in her head, and she started softly banging her head on the table, thanking the gods that she had chosen an isolated corner of the shop so no-one could notice her insanity.

"What's wrong with you?" an amused, yet insanely attractive voice asked her, making Rachel look up and glare at the male model in front her. Apollo had already caught the eye of more than a few women in the coffee shop, but with centuries of practise, he ignored them. Grinning, he sat down across from the Oracle and ordered a latte from the young waitress who had hurried over. When she had left, he repeated his question and raised an eyebrow. Sighing, Rachel pointed wordlessly to the toddler, who now seemed to be rolling across this table, giggling with delight when his mother rolled it back. Apollo looked confused. "Why can't that little boy just eat that apple already? I mean, look at it! So shiny and crunchy looking..." she trailed off angrily. Apollo laughed.

"You're seriously pissed off at a little kid who won't eat an apple? Granted, that is a fine specimen of an apple, but don't you have other things to worry about? Like the fact that you could randomly sprout a prophecy any minute?"
Rachel waved it off, finishing her coffee and standing up. "Can I help you with anything, Lord Apollo?" she asked as she left, sending one last longing look at the shiny apple. Apollo shrugged.
"I was bored and decided to visit my favourite Oracle. It's not every day I get to see a woman as beautiful and wonderful as yourself." He sent a sly smile her way, and it was ignored. "Anyway,"
he continued, unfazed by the lack of blushing from the girl beside him. "I was wondering if you would like to go see a movie with me. There's this new one out, a romantic comedy-"

"Sure." Rachel cut him off, sending him a funny look. "But anything, anything but a romantic comedy."

Apollo sighed in frustration, throwing his hands up in the air dramatically. "Girls are supposed to like romance, aren't they?" he asked. "I mean, you've made me doubt everything I've learned about women in the last two thousand years!"

Rachel snorted and fished around her handbag for her phone. She sent a quick text and looked up. "Whatever. But before we go, can we stop somewhere that sells apples or apple flavoured products? I have a craving for some reason."