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Apollo picks up knitting at a council meeting. He's always struggled keeping still, constantly tapping his fingers or not being able to do anything about the trembling when the conversations moves towards him.
Knitting feels therapeutic, in a 'wanting to set the yarn on fire' way.
Especially in the beginning he continuously makes easy mistakes, like pulling it too tightly and cutting off the blood flow to his finger for a little or counting wrong.
Athena watches him during the entire first half of the meeting, the first time he does it, her eyes seem to dig into his skin, and she's seemingly so distracted with keeping her eyes on him, that Zeus has to raise his voice to shake her out of it.
During a short break, she comes up to him and fixes his hold on the knitting needles and scolds him for not asking her to explain it to him. A warmth spreads inside his chest, while he listens to her attentively, nodding along and asking the right questions.
He decides that he'll knit her socks, once he's got the hang of it.
Once Hermes teases him about it and immediately shuts up when Apollo presents him with a fingerless glove, that he gifts him.
The glove looks scuffed, but Apollo is sure Hermes' eyes look a little teary when he turns to leave.
After that Hermes asks him, if he knits outside of council meetings and if so, he could sit by him and watch him. He does, he patiently watches the yarn take form, one loop at a time.
When Apollo presents his first attempt at socks to Athena, she judges them harshly, but takes them nonetheless, he swears, he sees her holding them tightly to her chest, when she briskly walks out of the throne room. Seemingly soothing herself from Zeus' exploding at her.
Ares giggles when Apollo gives him a knitted fake beard to put on. Apollo hasn't heard Ares giggle since he'd been a toddler. He returns the laugh with a bright grin.
Later he sees Ares make kissy faces at Aphrodite who looks equally as amused by it, he watches her give him a forehead kiss.
The longer he knits, the more proficient he gets, so it's not long before he presents Artemis with a wonky wool sweater. It's moss green. She narrows her eyes at him and snatches it out of his hands. He sees her wear it, while playing cards with her hunters. The sleeves of the sweater cover the palms over her hands.
He doesn't register for quite a while, that the other Olympians have become more settled, some of them atleast. Too busy finishing project after project. Meg proudly wears the rainbow cardigan he made her to school. Will mentions that Nico stopped complaining about cold feet, since Apollo gave him a pair of socks, he'd even added a skull design. Everyone seems lighter. Apollo wonders if it's just him finally having something that helps him keep his thoughts in order.
Hestia's eyes widen when he hands her a scarf in beautiful oranges and yellows, he'd even sown flowers he'd also knitted onto it. She wears it around her shoulders, resting one of her hands in it, while tending to the hearth.
Dionysos pretends to not like the green and violet leg-warmers he gets, but when he visits camp, Harley tells him, that he's been wearing them while playing pinocle. Apollo does a bad job at hiding his laughter and receives a stink-eye from his brother.
When Zeus' yelling gets louder and angry arguments break out in the council, the usual pressure struggles to suffocate the council members. All of them keeping their eyes trained on Apollo's hands. Watching him create.
Athena and Hephaestos having joined the crafting, one crocheting, the other tinkering away at bolts and small metal plates he carries with him.
When Zeus turns his voice to Apollo, he doesn't flinch, he can even keep up the appearance of being calm and collected. His hands continuing their task, in the back of his minds counting, making sure he isn't making any mistakes.
There is safety in keeping himself busy. Not only for himself, but for everyone else too.