#AN ACTUAL FIREY BALL OF SUNSHINE ��️ | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

panda-noosh · 6 years ago

Text

Sunshine {demigod!Keith x Reader}

Words: 6k

Summary: Keith Kogane was insufferable. An absolute nightmare to be around. So why are you getting visions of him kissing you?

Genre: angst – percyjackson!au

Warning: if pet names make you cringe, you might not wanna read this.

Notes: masterlist – “Tbh just imagine a demigod au. Where Keith is still son of ares and the reader is the daughter of Apollo and Keith calls her sunshine constantly... fuuuuuuuuuuudgee I want Keith to call me sunshine.” I got this lovely anon message a few hours back and I really, really loved it. I know I kind of strayed a little bit from the main concept, but I have a habit of getting carried away with these things and my black heart just had to throw the angst in lol. But I hope you all enjoy!!

---

He was stupid.

Stupid, and annoying, and quite honestly, not worth your precious time.

Keith Kogane had an attitude that just irked you. It got on your nerves, made you bristle with the firey need to put him in his place at all times. He could never just talk. He had to command. All because his dad was Ares, god of war, Keith thought he was some big shot demigod who deserved all of the attention and all of the fame and all of the credit for things that, honestly, he wouldn't have been able to do if it weren't for the Apollo cabin.

It was an Ares personality trait, you were well aware. They all did it. They all had this aura of superiority about them, and even though Keith seemed mild in comparison to his siblings, he still managed to be the one guy who caught your eye and annoyed you.

Even now, during the most quiet time of the day at Camp Half-Blood; training. Training was a necessary thing in Camp Half-Blood, and it was bad if you skipped it. Chiron often got angry at people for skipping it, and an angry Chiron was a Chiron you did not want to deal with, which was why you were currently leaning against the fence post, arms folded over your chest, trying to pretend like you weren't glaring over at Keith Kogane as he battled it out with one of his sisters.

“You know, you're not making yourself look very subtle,” Hunk, your half-brother, called over to you.

Your eyebrows twitched up as you turned to look at him, arms still folded over your chest so that your Sun Blade gently nicked against the fabric of your training gear. “Hm?”

“You. You've been staring over at the Ares cabin for the past ten minutes. Haven't moved a muscle. I thought you'd been paralysed for a moment.”

You flushed, tried to cover it by biting your lip and looking away. Hunk and you were of similar ages, but you didn't like to talk about that. The fact that your father had gone from your mother to Hunk's mother in less than a few months was a fact you both chose to ignore. It was easier that way, just letting the gods get on with their own things and hope they didn't interject in your business in the meantime.

“Do you think you two will ever stop fighting with one another?” Hunk asked whenever you didn't respond to his earlier comments. He was busy now swinging a rope of fire above his head, ready to let it loose whenever the time was right.

“Who?”

“Well who else?” he said, getting impatient with your fake obliviousness. “You and Keith! The sexual tension drives me up a wall, and I think everyone would be a bit happier if you two just finally decided to stop pretending you hate one another-”

“I'm gonna stop you there,” you said, before you clicked your fingers. A ball of fire erupted in your palms and you hastily threw it through the centre of the rope Hunk was still swinging around; the fireball sliced through it, and Hunk's magical rope of fire disappeared, ashes floating to the ground being the only evidence it had been there at all.

Hunk frowned and glared over at you, but you ignored him and turned your head back to where the Ares cabin were training; to hell with them all, you said. To hell with him. To hell with his fancy equipment and the fact that he could easily lift a sword with barely a grimace to describe the weight of it. To hell with his sly comments. To hell with his protruding muscles and black hair that was currently slicked back with a thin sheen of sweat that was dripping down his forehead and his nose and making him glisten golden in the sunlight-

Yeah. Yeah. To hell with him.

Everybody else thought they had it all figured out. Everybody commented on the sexual tension between you and Keith – so much so that you had gotten to the point where you had just stopped trying to defend yourself. In your head, it was utterly outrageous that anyone would sense sexual tension between you and the son of Ares – whenever you looked at Keith, the last thing on your mind was jumping his bones. Whenever you looked at Keith, the only thing you wanted to do to him was tell him to shut up and perhaps send a swift punch to the back of his neck.

But nobody else seemed to understand that. They all seemed to think you two were just dawdling. That you two were just playing your hand at this hard-to-get thing, and eventually you would come together and it would all fall into place and everybody would be able to say I told you so. You nearly scoffed, folding your arms back over your chest and going back to casually leaning against the fence post – they would all see. One day, you were going to fall in love with someone who wasn't a complete asshole, who wasn't a complete show off. Then they'll all laugh and talk about how stupid they had been to think you and Keith could be anything more than mortal enemies.

----

“Good morning, Sunshine.”

You cried out, eyes snapping open as soon as the words were whispered in your throbbing ear.

You jerked upright and immediately came face-to-face with the absolute last person you wanted to see in this moment.

“What the hell are you doing here?” you snarled, shoving Keith away from you. He laughed as he stumbled back, giving you just enough time to push yourself away from the tree you had been dozing against and stand up straight. You were well aware of the dribble that was staining the corner of your mouth, the hay currently weaving its way through your tousled hair. You didn't care. Not in the slightest. Not one bit.

You were hurriedly fixing your appearance for you and you only.

Keith was grinning from ear to ear when you looked back up at him, and it was only whenever you made eye contact with him that you realised he hadn't actually answered your question.

“Did you just call me Sunshine?” you asked, forgetting about your previous query. You could care less what he was doing here – he could do what he wanted, just as long as he left you out of it.

He grinned even deeper. “Did you like it? I came up with it myself whenever I was watching you fall asleep a minute ago.”

You flushed crimson, despite trying your hardest not to. “Watching people sleep is creepy.”

“Yeah, well, you kind of left me no choice when you decided to fall asleep whilst on watch. I've basically just saved your ass, Sunshine.”

You gritted your teeth against the nickname, gritted your teeth against the absolute physical reaction it set off within you. You cursed to yourself. Butterflies were stampeding through your stomach, and you hated everything about it.

“If Chiron were to have been the one walking through-”

“Yes, okay Keith, I get it. I shouldn't have fallen asleep. You don't need to go on about it.”

“Oh, but I do. And I think I will for a little while longer.” He chuckled as you ground your teeth together, fists clenching at your sides. You could feel your skin heating up with the anger coursing through you, and it took everything in you not to completely explode at him in this moment – he had some nerve!

“You can go now,” you said. “You did your job – I'm awake.”

“I thought I could give you some company. You still have another three hours of watch to complete, and I'm sure it gets lonely out here all on your lonesome.”

You rolled your eyes and slumped back against the tree. Though he was right, you didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing such a thing. “I'm good, thanks. I'll make do on my own.”

But Keith, forever being the stubborn Ares son that he was, did not listen. He barely even registered your words as he pulled his sword from his back, set it on the grass before he slumped down beside you.

It was as soon as his shoulder brushed yours that the world melted away and left nothing behind but the oddest sight you had ever seen.

You were familiar with this feeling, this sudden disassociation from the world; all of the Apollo kids were. Having a father who was the god of prophesies often left you no choice but to suddenly disconnect from everyone else so you could catch a glimpse into the future, but never before had you felt it this strongly.

The sight before you was strange; you were familiar with the surrounding area, but you were confused as to why you would be standing in the Ares cabin. But you were. You could see the tapestries hung up on the wall, the weaponry littering the floor, the unmade beds and the scraps of food laying around hopelessly.

The cabin was empty bar you and Keith.

Keith was standing close to you. Much too close for your liking, and his hand was on your hip and you were staring at him in a way you were fairly certain you had never looked at anyone else before in your entire life. Your jaw was clenched – as it usually was whenever you were in Kogane's presence – but you were making no move to shuffle away from his touch.

The scene was moving in slow motion. Keith moved forward a single step, and then your hands were slowly rising and knotting into his red shirt, pulling him closer as if the rope had finally snapped and you just needed him to be close to you.

Keith leaned in. He whispered something you couldn't hear, leaned in a little bit more. From the sidelines, it was almost as if you could feel his breath tickling the space just below your ear, could smell his deodrant, could feel his heartbeat through your-

“Y/N!”

Your eyes snapped open. You gasped. The heat that had once engulfed your body had grown ten fold, and it took everything in you not to cry out with the slight burst of pain that came with snapping out of a prophesy.

You scattered forward. You didn't want to be touching him. Not right now. Not whenever your powers were sensitive, and every bone in your body was vibrating with the overwhelming emotions you were feeling right now.

Keith was on his knees, having clearly just been trying to snap you out of your episode. He looked at you now, though, with wide, worried eyes, his hands gripping the leaves you had once been sat on as if trying to stabilise himself.

“I'm sorry,” you choked out, unsure as to what you were apologising for.

“What just happened?” he asked. “Gods, Y/N, you look like you're about to pass out. You need to-”

“I need to get back to the Apollo cabin,” you snapped. It came out harsher than you intended, but his recoil comforted you. It meant you weren't at risk of him touching you any time soon. “Can you – Can you take over my watch?”

Keith was stiff. You expected him to tell you to go to hell, to tell you to suck it up and carry on with your job, but he didn't. His head barely moved, but you knew he was nodding, and as soon as you got the green light, you fled as fast as you could into the darkness, refusing to turn back and look at him.

---

Surely he hadn't been about to kiss you?

He was Keith Kogane, for crying out loud. The eerie, annoying boy you had despised from the moment you had both said hello to each other on that cold winters day all them years ago – you had only been seven years old, had been stuck at Camp Half-Blood for a little over two years whenever innocent little Keith stumbled in through the gates and immediately tried to make every person his bitch – he thought he was superior even then. It must have been a shock to the system whenever he learned that every single person he was trying to outsmart had been through the exact same thing as him – he wasn't the only troubled kid with a god for a parent.

You soaked in the bath water and tried to think up any excuse you could as to why your brain had conjured up such an absurd image.

Your skin was still scolding; it hadn't cooled down from the moment you had scrambled from Keith's side. The bath water you had run had been cold, but was now lukewarm at the contact of your flesh against it. You rubbed the water up your arms, but nothing happened. You were still sweating, still shaking as if you had a fever.

It had given you such a physical response, and you couldn't quite figure out why. Perhaps it was because it had been cut off so abruptly – everybody knew that it was extremely dangerous to pull an Apollo kid out of one of their visions. It shocked the body too much, even had a slight risk of death if the shock got the better of them.

You were lucky that your vision had been one you wanted to be pulled out of as soon as possible.

“Y/N? Are you still in there?”

You flinched upright, wiping hair out of your face. “Hunk. Yeah. Sorry. I'll just be a minute.”

“Keith told me what happened to you. He seemed really worried.”

You froze, hands gripping the edge of the bath tightly. So tight that your knuckles paled. Your throat suddenly felt slick, and you closed your eyes against his words.

“You know we have to tell Dad whenever something like this happens, don't you? It's protocol.”

“Hunk, please don't.” You scrambled out of the water then, grabbing a towel and wrapping it tightly around your middle. You were comfortable enough with Hunk like this – sharing a cabin with him for as long as you had done meant that having a towel wrapped around you was hardly a shock to the system.

You opened the door to the washroom. Hunk was leaning against the door, messing idly with his bandanna which he had taken off for the night. He had a green face mask drenching his skin, and was dressed in his silken pyjamas with ducks on them.

He looked up at you through the gaps in his face mask.

“Dad has to know,” he said. “In fact, I don't doubt that he already knows. He sees everything, that guy, I swear to gods.”

You winced. “I don't want to talk to him. I don't even – Look, it wasn't that big of a deal. We all get visions every now and then-”

“And they're dangerous,” said Hunk, because they were. “There's a reason we're trained up to try and fight them off, Y/N. They cause trauma. They've killed some of us.”

You shivered. “I'm still alive.”

“But you're clearly shaken up.” Hunk sighed then and ran a hand through his brown hair. “Keith was worried, and that's what worried me. He said your skin started heating up really badly and then your eyes started glowing golden and then you just bolted from him. What did you even see?”

“Nothing,” you said immediately. “Nothing special. I don't even remember it that well.”

Hunk raised a brow, clearly not believing a single word you were saying. Oh well. You didn't need him to believe you – the prophesy was over, and it was obviously a mistake. What you had seen made no sense, and never would make sense, and you were better off just forgetting about it.

With this thought, your skin heated up even more. You gritted your teeth against the slight buzz of pain that came with such a thing, and Hunk took notice.

He shook his head. “Dad will want to see you. I wouldn't be surprised if he was here by tomorrow to talk to you.”

“Dad doesn't need to worry-”

“Dad isn't worried. He's doing what he needs to do to make sure his kids aren't prophetising some unknown war.” He sighed. “And by the looks of you now, what you saw disturbed you.”

---

Apollo made his appearance the very next day.

Just as you remembered him with his glowing, golden eyes and his tanned skin. He had on his usual pair of red tinted sunglasses, his fingers littered with an unnecessary amount of golden rings, golden necklaces looping around his neck. On his middle finger, he had tattooed a smiling sun.

He grinned brightly when he saw you. “Y/N!”

It was a surprise he even remembered you.

You smiled shyly as Chiron closed the door and gave you and your father some privacy – privacy that you didn't see as necessary, but refused to comment on right now. It would only make Apollo uncomfortable, and you didn't want to deal with an angry, uncomfortable god at the moment.

“I've been made aware that there's some stuff you and I need to discuss, hm?” he said. He pulled a chair out from beneath the large, mahogany desk and sat down, before he clicked his fingers and another one shot out towards you. You hesitantly took a seat beside him, idly messing with your fingers in your lap.

“You had a vision last night, didn't you, little one?”

You gritted your teeth. “I don't know what you're talking about.” It was easier to lie, even though you knew full well that your father was well aware of your deceptions.

He raised a brow, barely visible above his massive sunglasses. “So we're playing dumb today, hm? Did I not raise you to never tell lies? Did I not tell you that lying wasn't going to get you anywhere?”

“That might have been one of your other kids.”

Apollo frowned thoughtfully. “Might have been. I don't really remember.” He snapped back to reality then. “Tell me what it was you saw, Y/N. Exactly what you saw.”

And you were well aware that it was his powers making you do it, were well aware that your father was currently in your head, stifling through your troubled thoughts for that one memory, that one prophesy that had gotten you here in the first place. You were well aware that you wouldn't be able to lie even if you wanted to.

The sudden pull on your conscience was entirely him, and without your permission, the entire vision you had suffered through the night before was pouring from your lips in immense, over-dramatic detail.

Apollo sat back and listened as you unfolded for him. You winced when you heard yourself talking about how Keith had leaned in, how your hands had bunched up in his shirt, how you had been in the Ares cabin in the first place. That in itself was weird enough without the added dramatics of a potential kiss thrown into the mix.

After the tale was told, you gasped and felt a force pushing you back into the chair. You hadn't even realised you had been leaning forward. Sweat now lined your forehead, and you felt manipulated.

“Gods,” you whispered, wiping a trembling hand over your brow. “I don't know how things are in Olympus, father, but here on earth, what you just did is illegal.”

“False,” he said casually. “Your government do it all the time. Now, let's discuss what it is I've just seen – does my daughter have a little crush?”

You flushed bright red, hand freezing on your forehead. “What?”

“Well, why else would you be having prophesies about kissing Keith Kogane? A son of Ares, of all people! You could have gone for someone from the Hephaestus cabin – they're much calmer, I think. Although Hephaestus can cause a ruckus every now and-”

“I do not have a crush on Keith Kogane!” you shrilled.

Apollo flinched back. “Don't raise your voice like that.”

“Then don't make assumptions like that!”

“It wasn't an assumption, little one. I saw what I saw, and you saw it as well – it was a prophesy. A very brief glimpse into the future that will-”

“It was a mistake, is what it was,” you snarled. “Keith and I hate each other!”

“Not according to Hunk.”

Your face fell. “You spoke to Hunk?”

“I thought I'd catch up with him, yes.” He casually leaned back in the chair, draping his arm over the back of it. At first glimpse, you would have truly seen him as no older than his mid twenties. “He told me that the son of Ares was quite worried for you yesterday – flustering around, asking how you were and if he could see you. That doesn't sound like hate to me – not at all.”

“And what would you know?” you mumbled, folding your arms over your chest and sinking lower into your seat.

“You're acting like a brat now, Y/N,” Apollo said. “You were never like this when you were a youngster. You're meant to grow out of these fazes, not grow into them.”

You hollowed out your cheeks, resisting the urge to get up and leave. It was useless anyway. No doubt Apollo had put some magical, double bolted lock on the gods damned door and you would be trapped in here until his say so. But you had butterflies in your stomach, and your skin was prickling with a heat that had not come from the aftershocks of a vision – it was pure embarrassment, pure emotion that was making you want to open a window right now to let air wash over you.

“Personally, I'm relieved the vision wasn't something more,” continued Apollo. “It could have been disastrous, but it was nothing more than some romantic awakening. Quite anticlimactic, if I do say so.”

“Hmph.”

Apollo grinned then, a grin that was almost identical to your own. “Oh, do cheer up, little one. Perhaps Keith Kogane will be good at kissing. Do I need to give him the dad-to-boyfriend talk before I leave?”

“I think you can just leave.”

Apollo grinned even brighter, as if his daughter hadn't just totally banished him from her presence. “Very well then. I bid you good luck for the future and all that.” He stood up, stretched out his limbs dramatically. As he brought his arms back down from their sky-high stretch, he slapped his hands against your head in that way grandfathers often did for the sake of it. You winced, shying away from his touch.

“It was good seeing you again, little one,” he said. “And remember – there's no point in fighting off the inevitable. It'll just leech your energy.”

And without a reply to carry him back to Olympus, your father erupted into flames and disappeared.

---

“Oi! Sunshine! Oi! There you are!”

You quickened your pace. He was the last person you wanted to see. The absolute last person you wanted to-

He grabbed your wrist, tugged you back. As soon as his fingers wrapped around wrist, you gasped and flinched away, afraid of his touch triggering another vision. They were rare, but you didn't want to risk it happening again.

“What do you want?” you hissed, rubbing your wrist frantically, as if trying to banish your skin of the feel of him completely.

Keith's eyes widened. “Woah. What's wrong with you?”

“Can you just say what you want to say and let me leave? I don't exactly wanna speak to you right now.”

He seemed stunned. You weren't sure why. The both of you had ever gotten along – if he was shocked at your attitude now, you hastened to wonder just how soft you had been with him before.

“Well, if you're gonna be a bitch, I guess I'll just go,” he said. “Sorry for wanting to make sure you were okay after last night.”

You were angry. You were furious, and you weren't even sure why. Your skin felt warm, and his violet eyes were pouring into yours and you could feel your legs turning to jelly as you remembered the way you could genuinely feel his breath on your neck during your vision when he had leaned in so slowly, so teasingly-

And it made you mad. It made you mad that people had been right, that this prophesy was something you couldn't avoid. Apollo had made it out to be something so simple, and you supposed it was to him, but to you, it currently meant everything.

The fact that Keith didn't even know just made you angry.

“Don't pretend like you give a shit about what you saw yesterday,” you snarled. Keith's eyes widened even further. “Gods, you must have thought it was so amazing to see an Apollo kid actually have a fucking breakdown in real life – you've only heard of them in story books, haven't you?”

“Y/N-”

“But they're real, Keith, and they happen, and they suck. They hurt, and they destroy lives. So get a good look at the aftermath whilst you still can, because I don't want to see you again after this.” With that, you stepped forward, shoved him roughly for no other reason than you just wanted to feel his skin beneath your fingertips before you turned and fled.

This would be how you avoided the prophesy coming true. You just wouldn't talk to him. You would hurt him, say awful things to get him to stay away from you – then maybe the future would shift. It would change itself and you would never have to worry about making a complete and utter fool out of yourself ever again.

Keith didn't even bother to reach for you whenever you turned and walked away from him, making sure to stomp your feet and clench your fists, making sure to make yourself look extra angry – maybe the fury would repel him even further. Maybe he would see this side to you and realise he had been an absolute fool to mingle with you in the first place.

And weirdly, as soon as you entered the Apollo cabin and crashed down upon your bed, you had never felt emptier.

---

Weeks passed. Nearly an entire month.

Hunk had been keeping you sane throughout the whole thing. He had been there for you the morning after your outburst on Keith, had rubbed your back and said he understood. Of course, he had told you that he didn't think you should have run from your feelings in the way you had, but he hadn't forced the topic of rekindling things with the Ares boy either, which was a relief. You weren't sure how much of that you would have been able to take.

Keith had kept his distance, as well. For the first few days, you would hear the usual hollering of the word 'Sunshine' being thrown in your direction, but he eventually gave up. He had been repelled, making your life a hell of a lot easier. Now, you could easily brush past each other in camp and not even spare one another a single glance.

And honestly, it was destroying you.

You weren't sure why. For years you had been fairly certain that you had only seen Keith as attractive – his personality had never grabbed your attention. At least, you didn't think so. For years, you two had been at each others throats, and now that it was gone – that innocent back and forth – you weren't entirely sure what to do with yourself.

The days were longer. Events became more like business than fun, because Keith had always made them fun. Even though, in the moment, you would swear left and right that he was annoying the hell out of you as he poked you in the side and tried to distract you from the task at hand, now that you were missing his constant mumblings in your ear, you missed it.

But it was for the best, you reminded yourself. Always for the best.

It was a particularly warm day whenever Chiron ordered you to take on laundry duty for the first time in years.

Laundry duty was mostly taken on by people in the Hephaestus cabin, or the Aphrodite cabin. The kids in those cabins had a thing for perfection, and so they very rarely let others touch their clothing, which meant they took on the added task of doing everyone elses laundry, as well.

But the Hephaestus and Aphrodite kids were out training elsewhere today, meaning the baton had been handed down to the Apollo cabin.

“Just deliver these to the right cabins and that's it,” said Hunk, shoving a basket full of warm clothes into your hands.

You groaned, throwing your head back. “I didn't sign up for this.”

“Stop whining and get it over with,” he said.

And so you did, much to your own dismay. You were surprised to see just how many cabins you had never been in before – they were all so different, and you felt a different type of uncomfortable pull with every one, as if the gods were angry at you for trespassing.

You weren't really thinking of seeing him whenever you racked your knuckles against the door of the Ares cabin. At the end of the day, Keith was known to never be tied down to the indoors – he liked his freedom, liked walking around outside and showing off whatever cool new blade he had acquired. So the idea of him opening the door to greet you was the last thing on your mind.

Until it was him standing in front of you.

The both of you blanked. You felt your fingers slipping from the handles of the laundry basket, and you had to stumble to catch it upon your knee and haul it back into your proper grip.

It was such an easy mistake to make. It was such an easy situation to fall into, and you had never thought of it happening like this – you delivering laundry. How anticlimactic was that? Whenever you first had the vision, you thought the only way you would ever end up within the Ares cabin would be by force, perhaps a battle raging outside forcing you under the only cover you could find – the Ares cabin.

But nope. It was happening because you had been given laundry to hand out.

“Uh – clothes,” you said. “I have clothes.”

Keith nodded slowly, not once taking his eyes off of you.

“You can take them if you want,” you continued. “Actually, I'd prefer it if you took them. I need to get this basket back to Hunk, and-”

Keith's hand suddenly reached out and gently brushed a strand of hair out of your face.

You gasped, shocked at the sudden contact. Your fingers really did slip then, the basket tumbling out of your grip and landing in a pile right in the doorway.

The clothes spilled out, scattered themselves upon the wooden floor.

“Son of a bitch,” Keith grunted, bending down to clean up. “I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-”

“It's fine,” you said, kneeling down to help him.

Why you had done such a thing, you were quick to question, because you and him were suddenly very close together, and your body temperature was rising again, and this was it. This was the future happening, the future you had predicted. You knew what was going to happen, knew you should try and prevent it in some way, knew there was barely any point in avoiding the inevitable but wanting to do so anyway.

You gathered the bundle of clothes into your hand and placed them messily back into the basket – you didn't even care that the remaining cabins clothing had been mixed up, that you would have to go back to Hunk and other Apollo kids and ask them to sort through the items once again. You just wanted to drop his clothes off and leave.

You pushed past him, shoulders nudging as you made your way into the messy room. Keith gawked at you from the doorway, but you ignored him. You had to.

“You should thank Hunk for the washing,” you grumbled, trying to make innocent conversation. Talking was perhaps the only thing stopping you from buckling under his intense gaze right now. “He even added a special powder so all of your stupid, skin-tight shirts smell better. But I think he ended up-”

Your words died in your throat whenever you felt a warm hand on the small of your back – it wasn't anything suggestive. It was almost as if someone was easing you through a crowd, a gentle brush against the lower part of your back that had you whirling around to face Keith before you could think any better of it.

His eyes were searing into yours. You were the child of the god of the sun, but his gaze had to be more smouldering than what yours was. His violet eyes had turned dark, and he was biting on his lower lip.

“Sunshine,” he said, voice barely above a whisper. “Where have you been?”

Your eyes closed instinctively. You weren't sure why. Where had the tough persona disappeared to? Why weren't you shoving him away, telling him to go to hell and take his stupid nickname elsewhere?

Maybe it had something to do with the burning desire suddenly coating your stomach, the sudden urge to wrap your fingers in his red jacket and tug him closer to you, feel him closer to you.

“Don't – Don't call me that,” you managed.

He chuckled breathily. You felt it tickle your skin.

“Where have you been, Y/N?” He whispered your real name as if it were some kind of secret, leaning impossibly closer to your ear as he spoke – this was just like an Ares kid to do, but it felt so different, so unexpected coming from Keith.

“I've been busy,” you replied. “Why do you care anyway? It's not like we ever liked each other.”

Keith scoffed. “We certainly didn't hate each other, though, did we? Even the other campers were able to pick up on that.”

You winced, recoiling at the mention of the things the other campers had been saying about the two of you for years now, the things you had both denied left, right and centre.

“You were avoiding me, weren't you?” he continued. “For whatever reason, that vision you had made you want to stay away from me. What did you see, Sunshine? What does your future hold?”

“Don't be creepy,” you said. You were trying to bring the mood back down, trying to bring back the banter you were so used to having with him, but his eyes were still hooded and dark, and he made no attempts to move away from you. On the other hand, you were making no attempts to move away from him, either.

“It was about me, wasn't it?”

“So many questions.”

And then his hand was on your hip all of a sudden. This was your moment. This was the time for you to pull away, to destroy the future you had been destined to have because you were too nervous to throw yourself into that kind of thing just yet – but you stayed rooted to the spot.

His fingertips burned. It was fire against fire, your scolding skin igniting under his grip.

“You know that old saying they have – it takes being away from someone to realise how much you need them?”

Your breath hitched. “Keith-”

“I believe it,” he gravelled. “I believe it now.”

You eased then, his confession making you feel weak. Your eyes closed again and then you were letting yourself go, saying fuck it to every single anxiety you had once had as your hands travelled up Keith's middle until you were bundling your hands in his shirt, pulling him impossibly closer.

He leaned in to whisper in your ear, just like you knew he would. “Neither of us can change the future, Sunshine. We might as well not try.”

He kissed you then. Slowly and precisely, as if he was afraid of hurting you somehow. His lips were chapped and bitten, but they were perfect all the same, left you craving more.

His other hand rose from his side and he cupped your jaw, moving your head only slightly but still giving you the freedom to do what you wanted – a characteristic you never expected from an Ares kid. He was going to allow you to pull away if you wanted to. For once, he didn't want to be in complete control.

You pulled him closer to you, crushing your bodies together until Keith was gasping against your mouth at the sudden harsh tug you gave to his shirt. You let go of the material, instead wound your hands in his hair and tugged. Keith panted against your mouth before pulling away completely. His eyes were closed, and for the first time, Keith Kogane looked vulnerable.

“Was that – Was that what you saw in your vision?” he asked hoarsely.

You nodded stiffly, still trying to catch your breath.

“And you never told me?”

“I was trying to avoid it.”

“Look how that turned out.”

“You just have to be right about everything, don't you?”

He opened his eyes then, grinned and pressed a short kiss to your lips. “Always, Sunshine.”

696 notes · View notes